Nano Effect: The Geth Crysis
by LEGION001
Summary: Crysis tech in Mass Effect universe. CryNet Phantom Wraith, is sent on a mission to Eden Prime on the Alliances newest warship with the legendary Commander Shepard. Nothing could have prepared him for what would come after. Revised version. Shepard/OC. Rated M for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_A/N: So here it is. The rewrite of Nano Effect. I hope that you will find it better than my last version. As always thanks to DN7 who is constantly there to make sure my stuff makes sense and that I don't cause NE to crash and burn. _

_Disclaimer: Last time I checked I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis. If I did then I would make a Mass Effect/Crysis game. But I don't. Bioware, Crytek and EA do. _

**The Beginning**

_A masterpiece. That's what the Normandy is. A masterpiece of both turian and human engineering._ I thought to myself, listening to the soft hum of the drive core as I walked towards the cockpit. The noise was so quiet that I could only hear it due to the sound enhancements of my Nanosuit. Which is another example of an engineering masterpiece, albeit on a completely different level.

My name is Martin Duncan, Director of CryNet Systems and it's subdivision CryOps, as well as the CryNet Phantom codenamed 'Wraith'. I can count on one hand the number of people who know of this dual identity, most of whom are a part of CryNet. CryNet is a subsidiary of the Alpha Tech and Sciences Corporation which was founded shortly after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars in 2148. CryNet itself was founded in 2162 after ruins of a civilization far older than the Protheans were discovered, and as such was devoted to the study and understanding of the civilization we have come to call the Ceph. Once we had an operational understanding of their advanced nanotechnology, CryNet was able to quickly climb the galactic corporate ladder and claim a spot amongst the most elite weapons and technology development firms. This was primarily due to the development and deployment of the most high tech battle armor ever seen, the Nanosuit. With that rise in power, CryNet branched itself into three separate entities to make full use of it's new abilities.

CryOps is the most widely known section of CryNet due to their handling of the Phantom and Inquisitor operatives. The Phantom's, such as myself, are armored with the N2, given full access to the entire CTA inventory, and have such extensive training even the Salarian Special Tasks Group has some catching up to do. We operate as individual agents or as small teams usually taking down pirates, arresting criminals across the galaxy, or doing the jobs some governments are uncomfortable with. With the aid of the nanosuit, superior training and weapons, Phantom's have become nearly as feared as the Council's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance (Spectre) Agents.

The Inquisitor's are the more public face of CryOps and are more recognizable in their GHOST armor. The best analogy for the Inquisitor's are that of the old 21st century SWAT teams. Using the standard galactic ranking for armor, the GHOST armor would be considered more in line with ultra-heavy armor or even powered exoskeleton, and as such allows the Inquisitors to withstand withering fire fights that most police forces wouldn't have a chance against. This has made the Inquisitor's the go to force when facing gang wars, paramilitary forces such as the Eclipse, Blue Suns or the Blood Pack, or for anti-terrorism.

Of course, CryOps does have operating protocols meaning neither the company as a whole or our individual agents can do as they wish. When we first debuted our Phantom and Inquisitor programs, the Citadel Councilors saw both an opportunity and a disaster waiting to happen. As such, the Councilors and the Directors of Alpha Tech & Sciences and CryNet both created the Citadel-CryNet Accords.

In short, it outlined the Phantom's and Inquisitor's abilities and rights for taking down criminal's or executing any paramilitary mission. We can't act against a recognized government or official with out majority authorization from the Council, or if needed have evidence to prove beyond a doubt that we were in the right. Unlike the Spectre's, we are bound by the same law we are sworn to uphold.

While we are limited in some areas, the Accords also gave us unfettered access to any Ceph ruins and the ability to research Artificial Intelligence technology which has proven vital in the field.

The other two branches of CryNet are CryNet Technologies (CryTech) and CryNet Intelligence (CryTell). CryTech, is the technology development, testing, and manufacturing arm of CryNet. The brilliant men and women here are the ones who have developed not only the Nanosuit (both the original and the newer Nanosuit 2, aka 'N2'), but the Guardian Heavy Offensive Strategic Trooper (GHOST) Armor and the entire CryTech Armories (CTA) weapon and vehicle inventory as well.

CryTell is quite simply, the only other intelligence agency that comes close to the Shadow Broker. Unlike the Broker, we forward any relevant and pertinent information to the government's who need it. Since it's impossible to simply give that kind of information out for free, we have agreements in place with various government's for payment for said information.

These three branches of CryNet are each headed by a single Director, who together with the Director of the Alpha Tech and Sciences Corporation, form the CryNet board, with the CryOps Director being the spokesperson of CryNet, so that would be me.

Getting back to the present, I was called aboard the Normandy to fulfill the position of CryNet's representative for the final stage of the ship's construction as the Phantom Wraith. As I said earlier, very few people know that Director Duncan and Wraith are one in the same, so to preserve the character of corporate official, Wraith was the one 'assigned' in the Director's stead due to a scheduling conflict. When work had begun on the Normandy project, the Alliance and Turian Hierarchy were trying to develop their own stealth ship without much success. CryNet was then contracted to help with the stealth systems, since we already had quite a bit of experience with stealth tech.

We had already completed ships with integrated stealth technology, much of which came from our study of Ceph technology. One technique we perfected was the ability to draw heat generated from ships into heat sinks, allowing these ships to be invisible to modern scanners which looked for high heat output against the cold of space.

As it were, I wasn't the only non-Alliance representative on the Normandy, a Turian Spectre named Nihlus was on board as well. _ A Spectre overseeing a simple shakedown run? Captain Anderson as the CO with Commander Shepard as his XO? The crew has got to be suspicious. _Their suspicion would be warranted as this entire "shakedown run" was just a ruse. We were going to pick up a Prothean beacon on Eden Prime and take it to the Citadel for study. Sending Shepard might also strike others as odd for sending on a shakedown run even if they knew about the beacon in the first place, which was unlikely. The Council and the Alliance were keeping that information close to their chests, trying to keep others from getting their hands on it. The only reason CryNet knows about it is because the Council thought they might need CryNet's help with it and because we would figure it out sooner or later.

Commander Vanyali Shepard wasn't your regular XO for this kind of thing. Just about everyone in the Alliance knew her. The Hero of Elysium. The Survivor of Akuze. The Conqueror of Torfan. She held off Batarian slavers during the Skyllian Blitz on Elysium, survived her entire unit being wiped out by Thresher Maw's on Akuze, and captured Torfan despite heavy losses. She was the role model of the Alliance and the hero every soldier aspired to be. Able to survive the impossible and achieve victory in the face of defeat. Of course there were some rumors that she was assisted on Elysium by an elite covert ops specialist, rescued on Akuze by that same specialist, who then later aided her on Torfan. Rumors usually have a speck of truth in them though.

While Shepard had her adventures, I was training and doing various operations around the galaxy as the first CryNet Phantom. During a couple of these operations I worked with Shepard herself. I first met Shepard on Mindoir shortly after I had just seen my fiance, Lynna, die in my arms due to Batarian slavers. I was pretty messed up emotionally then when I saw her. Shepard was kneeling in front of the bodies of her parents and younger brother with her sister. Seeing them hardened me and I resolved that no one should have to feel the pain that Shepard, her sister, and I did that day. I brought the Shepard's to an Alliance patrol at their wish, and returned to the CryNet lab there to start my own journey**.**

I came across Shepard once again out of sheer coincidence on Elysium. Shepard was there on leave, as I later learned, while I was there as CryNet had received some questionable intel, but I had a hunch that there was something big going to go down on Elysium. That hunch was proven in a way even I didn't imagine. Perhaps the biggest Batarian pirate fleet ever assembled attacked one of the most prosperous Alliance colonies in the Traverse. Naturally things were crazy in the first hour of battle as the local Alliance garrison mustered what defenses they could. During the battle I heard of a lone Alliance soldier holding off the Batarians by herself. Deciding that I could best defend the colony by helping the soldier I rushed over to where she was hunkered up and was rather surprised to see that the lone soldier was actually Shepard. We quickly got a plan into action. While Shepard would be holding the choke point and drawing the Batarians attention onto herself, I would be behind Batarian lines, sabotaging what I could. When the Alliance finally arrived I disappeared, leaving no evidence of my involvement, except for Shepard herself.

A year later, Shepard's CO contacted CryNet asking us to send someone to investigate Akuze. Shepard's squad had gone dark, the Alliance didn't have anything fast enough in the region, and some bureaucrat even stopped him from sending someone himself. So, he contacted CryNet off the record and I was only to happy to oblige him. Arriving on Akuze, I found her running from Thresher Maw's. Luckily I was able to extract her before she was badly injured. I then learned what happened to her down there. Apparently there was a distress beacon that Shepard was sent to investigate. Shortly after her unit landed they were attacked by Thresher Maws. It seemed that the ones who set the beacon were also killed.I could tell that Shepard was having a hard time dealing with her losses in the shuttle ride back to the Alliance. However I couldn't do much, other than say that it wasn't her fault. I didn't know her enough. I had to leave that to the Alliance.

Then came Torfan. I was surprised to see her there after Akuze. After telling me that she been declared fit for duty, and that Torfan would be her first operation after returning to active duty. As it was, Torfan was my first "official" op with Shepard. The Alliance had contacted CryNet for a Phantom to help them take out the pirate base stationed there. It had been determined that the moon Torfan was the staging ground used for the attack on Elysium, and as such was expected to be heavily defended. Fate it seems wasn't with out a sense of irony that day. The attack was similar to Elysium, only we were the ones attacking. I infiltrated the base to provide advanced recon and sabotaged enough the enemy systems to allow Shepard to lead her unit through the base. After some very bloody fighting we took the base with no Batarian survivors, but Shepard again lost nearly her entire unit.It was there that I noticed a definite change in her personality. While on Elysium she held of Batarian forces alone, keeping them from killing Alliance soldiers. On Torfan she ordered soldiers under her command into suicidal odds without hesitation. I questioned her about her behavior, and she merely said that they were casualties of war. Akuze had made her colder, ruthless, yet having spent quite some time wearing a mask myself, I could see through hers, to see that she deeply regretted their deaths.

It was these three events, Elysium, Akuze and Torfan, that led to Shepard being on the Normandy. I figured that Shepard had to be a Spectre candidate. It was the only real plausible option. She wasn't the first Human Spectre candidate, Anderson was but he had the bad luck of having Saren Arterius oversee his candidacy. Saren was, and still is, known for being racist towards humanity and had likely set Anderson up for failure. I had high hopes for Shepard, however, knowing that not only was she the best the Alliance had to offer, but Nihlus overseeing her candidacy is also good. Nihlus does not share his fellow Spectre's hatred of humanity, instead choosing to see our potential.

_That will definitely help Shepard with her Spectre status._ I mused arriving at the cockpit. Nihlus was standing right behind the pilots chair in which sat the best pilot in the Alliance, Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau. Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko was sitting beside him in the co-pilot's seat.

"Phantom." Nihlus greeted me.

"Spectre, Alenko, Joker. What's the Normandy's status?"

"10 minutes out from the Arcturus Prime relay." Joker responded.

I nodded once, staying silent for a few minutes. As Joker started the approach to the relay I heard footsteps come up from behind me. Turning slightly I saw Shepard approaching, suited up in standard N7 armor. Acknowledging her with a nod, we were silent as the Normandy hit the relay propelling us onward. I crossed my arms as Joker started checking off the Normandy's systems.

"Thrusters, Check. Navigation, Check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift, just under fifteen hundred K. CryNet scanning vessel reports no external emissions."

"Fifteen hundred is good. Your captain will be pleased." Nihlus said turning giving me and Shepard a sideways glance before walking away.

When he figured that Nihlus had left earshot range Joker gave his opinion of the Spectre. "I hate that guy."

"You hate Nihlus, because he gave you a complement?" Kaidan asked incredulously.

"Yeah, well you remember to zip up your jumpsuit leaving the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. Call me paranoid but I don't like having him on board."

"You're paranoid." Kaidan stated seriously. "The Council helped fund this project, they have the right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Sure." Joker rolled his eyes sarcastically "But that is the official story. Of course-"

"-Only an idiot believes the official story." I cut in, finishing his sentence with my smirk concealed by the nanosuits faceplate.

"Sending a Spectre on a shakedown run is extreme. There are many other Council agents that they could send on a simple shakedown run." Shepard added, nodding in agreement.

"So there is more going on here than the Captain's letting on." Joker concluded.

_Of that you can be sure Joker,_ I thought as the Captain's voice came over the intercom demanding a status report and ordering Shepard to the comm room. I joined Shepard as she left the bridge. With the enhanced hearing of the nanosuit I was able to hear Joker saying "Alright, Spectre or not, that Phantom is probably worse. With that suit and all." I chuckled slightly shaking my head causing Shepard to glance at me.

"What's so funny Wraith?"

"Joker thinks I'm worse than Nihlus." I stated causing her to chuckle slightly as well. "Anyway Shep, if I'm right, and I have no reason to doubt myself, you will be receiving some very interesting information in that conversation coming up. Do tell me if I'm right, 'eh?" I asked, smirking behind my mask.

"You know what this is about?" Shepard inquired glancing at me in surprise.

"I have suspicions. And my suspicions are usually correct. Well hurry up. You don't want to keep the Captain waiting do you?" I asked nodding towards the comm room.

"Fine. But you and me are going to have a talk about this." She warned, pointing at me before turning to a marine named Jenkins and the ship's doctor Chakwas.

Chuckling, I shook my head and leaned against a nearby wall. Ignoring the conversation between the three of them I opened a communication channel to Niel Teems, founder of Alpha Tech and Sciences, the parent company to CryNet and one of the other directors on the board of which I was another.

"_**Connection Established. External Speakers, disabled."**_ SECOND, the Nanosuit's on board non-sentient AI told me.

"Hey Niel. It's Wraith." I said using my codename

"Wraith. The Normandy's stealth systems look solid." Niel told me.

"Yeah, but that's not what I'm calling about. Well it kind of is. But more importantly I wanted to talk about Shepard as the new Spectre candidate."

That caused Niel to pause. "What, how do you know? A human Spectre candidate? They give up on CryNet?" He asked me.

"I figured it out the moment I saw the crew roster. We knew that Nihlus was the one in charge of evaluating the new Spectre candidate so seeing him and Shepard on the roster, well, you know. As for them giving up on CryNet they must have. After realizing that they were not going to get a Phantom as a Spectre anytime soon they must have decided to try the Alliance." I told him.

"I'm still surprised that you didn't accept the offer when they first asked." Niel said.

"It wasn't right. Humanity's first Spectre can't be someone behind a mask. Besides if the first Spectre were a Phantom, CryNet would draw a lot more attention than we need and already have." I told him glancing to the side as I saw Shepard enter the Communication room.

"And we both know that the Council only wants a Phantom as a Spectre to get some more power and control over CryNet." Niel stated.

"Ain't that the truth." I muttered. "That's another reason why I didn't accept their invitation. If the Council got even more power over CryNet we could have some definite problems. The Accords were bad enough."

"True. But they did give us more official power. It might have been worth it, if we got more power ourselves." Niel told me.

"I won't argue with that, but I highly doubt that the Council would give us that kind of power. We are a big enough wrinkle in their attempts to maintain the status quo as is." I mused as Anderson walked by, giving me a nod which I returned.

"Perhaps, but they might if we could play it correctly."

"Why are you talking as if they asked us already?" I asked my slight amusement coloring my voice "We are no where near that stage yet. At the moment we cannot be mired down in galactic politics. We have enough problems keeping our tech away from rival firms."

"That's true. Anyway, Derek told me that he decided on a name for that Gauss rifle he was developing." Niel informed me, Derek being the Head of CryTech.

"Oh god. Please tell me it's a decent one this time?" I pleaded knowing Derek's past names.

"Heh, he wants to call it the _CTA-2153 Gauss_." Niel said chuckling.

"Ugh. That's just as bad as the other weapons he named. Seriously, who calls a new frag grenade the _CTA. 30 Frag Grenade_?" I complained.

"Derek does. That's who."

"Ugh. I-" I broke off as a message marked urgent popped up on the side of my HUD "Wait. I'm getting a distress call from Eden Prime! I have to see the Captain and Nihlus about that, hold on." I said turning and walking briskly towards the comm room door.

I opened the door just in time to hear Joker over the intercom saying "Transmission from Eden Prime sir. You need to see this."

When Anderson, Shepard and Nihlus glanced over at me "I just heard about that distress call as well." I stated simply.

Anderson nodded in acknowledgment before responding to Joker, "Put it up on screen."

The transmission popped up on the main screen. The sound of gunfire immediately filled the room as the video showed a smoke-filled blood-red sky. A woman in Phoenix class armor was firing at an unknown enemy. Glancing over at the camera she pushed the cameraman out of the line of fire. After another explosion the camera turned to another marine who yelled, "We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties I repeat: Heavy casualties! We can't...argh!..-eed evac! They came out of nowhere. We need-" A loud groaning sound cut in and the camera turned to look at a dreadnought of incredible size coming down to land, red lightning flashing around it.

"Everything just cuts out after that. It just goes dead." Joker said seriously.

"Reverse and hold at that ship." Anderson ordered and the video flashed back to display the oddly shaped ship.

"Do we have that profile on record?" I asked.

"_**Searching. . . No match found."**_ SECOND informed us. Anderson and Shepard tensed slightly at its voice before relaxing. Nihlus howvere seemed unfazed.

"Take us in Joker. Fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated." Anderson ordered.

"A small strike team can secure the beacon quickly and without attracting attention." Nihlus said bringing up a map on his omni-tool. "I should drop first here. I move faster alone and should be able to provide reconnaissance."

"That's true. Shepard could drop here with a team." I said bringing up my own map on my visor and sending the information on to the rest. "I could drop up here on this ridge overlooking the dig-site. I would have a clear shot of the dig site and the surrounding area."

"Good idea. Captain?" Shepard turned to Anderson who nodded. "Grab your gear and meet us in the cargo hold!"

Since I already had all the gear I needed on me, I headed straight down to the cargo hold with Shepard who merely needed to grab her weapons. "I definitely wasn't expecting this." I muttered. "Here I was thinking this would be a nice and relaxing mission."

"You knew? You knew about the mission? About me being a Spectre candidate?" Shepard asked me as the elevator doors closed and the elevator began its slow journey down to to cargo bay.

"Well I knew about the mission. You being a Spectre candidate however? No, I just suspected, and you just confirmed my suspicions." I smirked at her as she narrowed her eyes. "Anyway Shep. Please don't keep me waiting at the dig site. I get bored pretty quickly."

"Hah! Just you wait and see. I'll be the one waiting!" She told me as the elevator doors opened.

"Oh really? Then last one there buys drinks!" I challenged.

"Deal. And just so you know, I want quality drinks. None of that cheap shit." Shepard said.

"If you want to pick your drink, you're going to have to get there first Shep." I told her as Anderson and Nihlus joined us. After finalizing our preparations, Joker flew us into position at drop-point one where Nihlus jumped down. Joker then flew us a few hundred meters farther and dropped Shepard, Alenko and Jenkins at drop-point two.

"Alright Captain. I am ready to drop. See you after the mission." I said giving Anderson a nod as we arrived at my drop-point. Turning, I leaped out of the Normandy while SECOND displayed a message on the HUD.

_**Objectives Updated**_

_A/N: Chapter 2 is almost ready to be uploaded. So expect to see that soon. Chapter 3 is done but just needs to be edited. 4/5 are almost done. I hope to have updated NE:GC up to chapter 5 within a month but no promises. I'll probably put what I want for your OC inquisitor submissions up in a long A/N at the end of next chapter. _

_As it is please review and give me your feedback. I want to make this story the best it can be but it can only become that if you guys tell me what needs work!_

_~LEGION_


	2. Chapter 2: The Eden Prime Crysis

_A/N: Here it is, the Second chapter of NE:GC. I strongly recommend that you read the authors note at the end of the chapter. Thanks as always to DN7 for his betaing work._

_Disclaimer: Nope, still no ME/Crysis crossover game so that means that I still don't own ME or Crysis. That's all Bioware, Crytek and EA._

**The Eden Prime Crysis**

"_**Preparing for Impact"**_

Impacting on the ground I sank into a crouch, stabilizing myself with my fist. Standing up, the suit's energy reserves began replenishing after being expended by the impact. I ran towards the ridge overlooking the beacon, conveniently marked on my visor. Activating my suit's power mode I ran across the uneven terrain, jumping over boulders as I came to them. I was nearing the dig site when I heard multiple gunshots ahead of me. Sprinting the twenty meters at full power I fell onto my stomach drawing my CTA-20 SCAR X assault rifle.

Coming to a stop on the ridge overlooking the dig site I switched my SCAR into its SCARE Sniper mode. The barrel of the SCAR extended and the sight switched itself into a 6x magnification sniper scope. I saw a woman in Phoenix armor running from two drones of some kind. She stumbled as she took a hit to her shields. Quickly sighting down my scope I took out one of the drones just as the woman dropped into a backwards slide taking down the second one's shields which I then promptly took down as well.

I then saw something that took my complete attention, four synthetics that as I watched them tagged by SECOND as Geth after it completed it's own scan, were holding a colonist to some kind of tripod device. After a few seconds the poor bastard was impaled on some kind of spear. Swearing quietly, I was lined a shot at one of the Geth when they themselves took fire from farther up the path. The Geth moved out of the way causing my first shot to go wide. I quickly realigned my sights again and put a round into one of the Geth bringing down its shields before putting another round straight through its flashlight head, causing it to explode in a shower of white fluid and metal parts.

Two of the other Geth had been taken out by some apparent allies up the path leaving one Geth left. This Geth soon started floating wreathed in the tell tale blue flame of biotics. Pulling the trigger twice more left this Geth also without its head, allowing me to look up seeing that Shepard and Alenko were approaching the female marine. Jenkins was nowhere in sight.

I opened a comm channel to Shepard in time to hear the woman say "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. 212. Are you the one in charge here ma'am?"

"You could say that Chief. What's the situation?" Shepard asked her.

"We were attacked by some kind of synthetics. We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. They cut our communications when we tried to send a distress call out. I've been fighting for my live since." Williams reported.

"What happened to your unit?" Shepard asked.

"Killed. All of them, I think. Although there might still be someone alive, I think that there is-" she hesitated before continuing "-or was a sniper up on that ridge." She finished pointing over to my general direction.

"That would probably be Operative Wraith. He was supposed to give us sniper support from there." Shepard told her.

"That's right Shep. Area is clear for now." I reported.

"Copy that Wraith. Any idea what enemy we're facing?" Shepard asked us in general.

Before Williams could respond I answered her. "I got a positive ID on Geth. Their directive is unknown. Presumably they are here for the beacon."

"Probably." Williams nodded before pointing towards the path leading towards the dig site. "The site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."

"Fall in Williams. I think it's time for payback."

"You got it ma'am."

"By the way Commander, what happened to Jenkins." I asked wondering where he was.

"KIA. Two Geth drones tore straight through his shields." Shepard responded grimly.

"Ah well, casualty of war I suppose." I said before swiveling my view to get a good look at the path leading up to the dig site when I noticed something "Uh, Shep? We got a problem. The beacon is not there. Repeat, the beacon is not at the dig site. Also watch your ass. We've got Geth incoming from that hill!"

"Copy that Wraith. Take em down!"

As one the squad started moving down towards the dig site, covering each other as they ran from cover to cover. Shepard was in the lead with her M-23 Katana, wrapped in a biotic barrier. Ashley came second, her M-8 Avenger spewing out bursts of bullets that kept the Geth's flashlight heads down. Alenko brought up the rear, firing at any Geth troopers that decided to pop their heads out of cover with an M-8 Predator pistol. Meanwhile I was bringing down Geth after Geth by firing two rounds consecutively at their flashlight heads; One round to take down their shields, the other to blow off said flashlights.

The amount of Geth streaming down the hill behind the dig site however was more than I could bring down by myself. As soon as Shepard got close enough she had a field day. Between shots I could see Shepard biotically pulling Geth towards her and unloading a shotgun blast in their face. As the Geth tried to charge her, Williams and Alenko took them down with accurate fire.

Just as I saw the last few stragglers coming down the mountain my SCARE beeped, the overheating warning flashing on my visor. I grimaced, holstered my SCARE and drew my dedicated DSG-1 sniper rifle to finish the Geth off. While the SCARE could fire quite a few times before overheating the DSG-1 could only fire three times. Four if I paused for a second between a shot before overheating. It however was a dedicated sniper and as such was more powerful. Sighting down the x12 scope, I took down two troopers in quick succession, waiting a second and taking down two more.

The last Geth however had fallen and I saw no hostile targets nearby. "Shepard, I see no hostiles. Meet you at the dig site." I jumped up holstering my DSG-1 and sprinted to a location where I could jump down to the dig site. The squad arrived just as I dropped down and I pulled out my SCARE switching it back to SCAR mode.

"Damn. What kind of weapon is that?" Alenko asked me. Glancing over at him I saw that Williams was rather surprised to see a Phantom here.

"CTA-20 Superior Combat Assault Rifle. Or SCAR for short. It has three different modes. A assault rifle mode which is its normal mode. Good at medium to long ranges. It has a sniper mode, which is called SCARE, or Superior Combat Assault Rifle-Extended. Finally, it has a carbine mode which is good at short to medium ranges that is called SCARAB, or Alternate Build. It's one of the most versatile weapons available at the moment." I explained.

"Damn, now I want one of those." Ashley remarked, earning a small laugh from me.

"Good luck with that. The public versions are locked in their respective modes. No way to unlock them either. Can't have the regular mercs get on equal terms with us now can we?"

"Yeah, let me tell you that particular feature pisses me off you know." Shepard grumbled. I smirked as I looked over at her to see her toting one such SCAR. "Alright, we have a mission to finish. The beacon is not here. Options?"

"Nihlus? It's Wraith. We hit a snag." I said opening a comm channel to Nihlus.

_"I'm listening." _

"The beacon is not here. Repeat the beacon is not at the dig site." I reported.

"_It must have been moved. There is a small spaceport up ahead. The beacon was probably moved through there. I'm going to check it out. Get over there. I'll wait for you."_ Nihlus ordered.

"Copy that. Wraith out." I closed the channel turning back to Shepard "There's your answer Shepard. To the spaceport."

"Williams. How do we get there?" Shepard asked.

"It's not far. Up that hill is a small camp. The spaceport is on the other side." Williams reported.

"Alright. Let's head up there. Keep your guard up people." Shepard ordered as we started heading up the slope.

"Damn. They definitely hit the camp hard." Williams commented as we approached it seeing the heavy smoke in the area.

"Yeah, but watch out. It's a good place for an ambush so keep your guard up." Alenko told her.

When we cleared the rise we came upon the camp which, as Williams had already said, was hit very hard. There were a bunch of spikes littered all over the camp with bodies hanging on them.

"More of those spikes. What are they trying to do?" Williams asked.

"Psychological warfare." Shepard answered.

"Or worse." I said as the spikes started sliding down bringing the bodies down with them where they fell down and slowly got up.

"Oh god. They are still alive!" Alenko exclaimed.

"Negative Lieutenant. Those husk things are long dead. Kill them." Shepard ordered grimly and we all opened fire on the oncoming husks.

"Lieutenant! Pull the bastards in!" Shepard yelled. Alenko immediately flared blue and some husks were yanked off their feet as the biotic pull grabbed them. Immediately Shepard flared blue herself and blasted the now floating husks herself with a warp which detonated in combination with the pull to blast the husks apart.

"My turn! Watch your fire!" I called out drawing my CTA-12 Nova pistol and my Carcharias dagger, arming myself for close quarter combat.

"_**Maximum Power"**_

I sprinted forward smashing into a husk with my shoulder, throwing it to the ground where I finished it off with a shot to the head. Three husks tried to charge me, but I stabbed the first through the head, shot the second twice in the body and once in the head allowing me to finish off the third with a decapitation. Another husk swung at me and I ducked underneath its arm causing it to unbalance slightly. I sliced off its leg before punching it through the head as it fell splattering what was left of its head all over the ground. Looking up as I heard a screech I saw the two remaining husks charging me. Dropping into a backwards roll came up ready to throw my dagger at one and gun down the second only to see them already falling to the ground filled with bullet holes.

"Good job and nice shooting all." I complemented looking around at the carnage around us. Besides the six husks there were six other husk bodies lying around in various states of dismemberment.

"Nice job taking those husks down," Shepard complemented me. "Even if you just had to show off."

"Commander. The spaceport is that way." Williams pointed further up the path "But that building is locked. There might be someone hiding in it."

"Right. Shepard, I'll head on and scout out the space port. You can see if anyone is in there and then meet up with me later." I suggested.

"Alright. Get over there and stay in radio contact."

"Roger that Commander." I turned and headed further along the path. I came out on a slope overlooking the spaceport. Zooming in I saw a Turian that wasn't Nihlus. _Who is he and what is he doing here?_ I asked myself as I saw Nihlus come out of hiding and aim his rifle at the newcomer. They started talking and I took the time to get a ID on the Turian.

"_**Positive ID match. Saren Arterius. Spectre."**_

That sent off warning bells in my mind. "Why would Saren be here now_?_ The Council wouldn't send another Spectre for a simple recovery mission." I muttered to myself. Even though I was talking to myself SECOND answered:

"_**Intercepted enemy transmission. Decryption complete. Transmission intercepted five minutes prior:"**_

I listened to the audio log that SECOND had intercepted from the Geth wireless communications with growing understanding and horror: _"Keep the alliance squad from reaching the beacon. I will deal with Nihlus." _

"_**Positive voice recognition on Saren Arterius."**_

I didn't need SECOND to confirm my suspicions to know what was going on. I was reaching for my DSG-1 while opening a comm channel to Nihlus to warn him when my suit went haywire. I gasped in pain as the connection between me and the suit suddenly vanished and I was forced to my knees by the combination of the pain and the sudden weight of the suit.

"_**Warning. Hostile threat attempting to seize control.**_

_**Engaging safety protocols."**_

I was forced to watch helplessly as Saren drew his pistol and shot Nihlus in the back of the head.

"_**Rerouting systems. . ."**_

"Fuck." I swore as I tried to open a comm channel to Shepard.

"_**Communication systems offline."**_

"Come _on!"_ I yelled angrily.

"_**All Systems rerouted. Cleared to proceed."**_

"Finally!" I shouted. I activated power mode and started charging down the slope towards the spaceport loading dock. I reached it to find four Geth and about ten husks waiting for me. Growling I pulled out my SCAR quickly changing it to SCARAB and opened fire. The superior rate of fire was perfect for the clumped up group and they were soon mowed down, a single husk got through to me which I immediately kicked with such force that my foot smashed right through its abdomen. Sighing, I turned to Nihlus's body. The bullet had entered his head right below his fringe and left a clean hole out of his forehead.

I sighed before having SECOND try and figure out what the hell happened while waiting for Shepard to get down here. I took the time to look around. The haze of smoke filled the sky and the countless fires made it look like the sky itself was burning. Off behind the spaceport the massive ship from the transmission was sitting on the ground. Even as I watched it took off, wreathed once more in red lightning.

As the ship disappeared into the sky I glanced behind me towards the slope and saw Shepard, Williams and Alenko talking with a group of colonists that seemed to have just exited a building off to the side. Eventually they finished talking and started towards me. As they reached me Shepard immediately asked me "What the hell happened here."

I sighed. "He was fucking betrayed, and I was unable to do anything because something tried to take control of my suit. Fortunately they failed but I was unable to save Nihlus because of it."

"Who killed him?" Shepard asked.

I was about to answer when I heard a quiet noise from behind some crates. Spinning around I drew my SCAR and aimed it at the area while shouting "Alright, I know you're there. Come out with your arms in the air now, or I'll fill you with holes!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm coming out! No need to fill anyone with holes!" A dockworker stepped out with his hands up.

"What the hell were you doing back there?" I asked him harshly.

"I saw what happened to that Turian!" He said quickly, avoiding the question.

"Oh did you now? And I suppose you found it alright just to stay back there and not do anything?" I asked sarcastically.

"I'm not armed! What was I supposed to do? Go out and get shot with the guy?" He tried to justify himself.

"That still doesn't explain what you were doing back there in the first place and how you were not spotted by the Geth." Shepard stated.

"I- uh. Well I was- uh. I usually kind of- well I was back there taking a nap." He confessed nervously.

"You bastard. While we were out there dying you were sleeping?" Williams asked incredulously.

"Like I said before! I wasn't armed! It was the safest place for me!"

"Alright now. Lets just keep calm here everybody." Alenko interjected "He really couldn't have done anything. It was probably best that he hid. What's your name?"

"I- My name's Powell."

"Where is the beacon?" Shepard asked him.

"The beacon? That thing they dug up? They sent it on a tram. That Saren guy also went that way." Powell told us.

"Right thanks." Kaidan thanked him.

"Powell... You're Cole's contact for the smuggling ring." Williams accused him.

"What? I- Fine. I'm a smuggler. What good will it do? Everything's gone to hell." Powell said miserably.

"What do you have back there? It might help us against the Geth." Shepard asked.

"Fine. Here. These grenades might help. The marines never notice if a crate here or there go missing."

"So... While the marines are here to protect you, you use them as an opportunity to smuggle and get money for yourself?" Shepard asked dangerously.

"I never thought that they would need that! We are just a small farming colony. Why would anyone be interested in us?" Powell tried to justify himself.

"Alright. You have one last chance. Are you sure, this is all you have back there?" Shepard asked fingering her shotgun.

"Ahh... Well there was one more thing. Top of the line. Here take it! I don't need it!" Powell confessed handing over a box to Shepard. "They killed everyone. Everyone! I got to get out of here. I can't take it anymore!" He turned and headed back further into the boxes again.

"Bastard." I muttered. "So what did he give you?"

"A M-15 Vindicator." Shepard told me cracking open the box. "Here Chief, this is much better than that Avenger you have." She said handing it over to Williams.

"Thanks Commander."

"Alright. Lets move out." Shepard ordered.

We hadn't gone ten steps when we were attacked by a bunch of Geth. There were four troopers and a shock trooper around the corner on a walkway that led to the stairs going down while there was a destroyer and a couple of troopers straight below us.

"Shepard!" I yelled. "Focus on those Geth on the walkway! I got these down here!" Without waiting for a response I activated power mode and jumped down in the midst of the group of Geth. I smashed my fist down on a trooper as I landed, caving its head in. Spinning, I kicked the destroyer that was already aiming its shotgun at me so that it staggered and fell, its shot going wide. Ducking under the rifle of the remaining trooper as it tried to hit me with it, I delivered a flurry of reinforced punches to its body. I finished it off with a kick that sent it flying into a wall, its front badly dented. By this time the destroyer was getting back on its feet so I jumped up drawing my knife as I went up. Coming down behind it I sunk my blade into the back of its neck, severing some very important wires which caused the destroyer to fall down dead.

Using the dead destroyer as temporary cover, I rolled behind a wall as more Geth in-front of me took offense to my presence. "Impressive!" Shepard called out, joining me on the other side of the path, Alenko and Williams coming up right behind her.

"I try!" I shouted in response "Think you can do better?"

"Of course I can! Cover me!" She shouted in response before she charged out of cover wrapping herself in a biotic barrier. Charging straight into a trooper she blew its head off with a blast from her shotgun. Spinning around she biotically threw another trooper off the walkway before following that up with a carnage shot that blasted two troopers simultaneously. She finished off by taking another two troopers out with her shotgun.

"Not bad!" I shouted "But how about at longer ranges?" I pulled out my DSG-1 sniper rifle and began sniping Geth heads off like in a shooting gallery.

"Fuck you Wraith! Even if I had one, you know I can't use a sniper rifle for shit!" Shepard yelled at me.

"That's a pity! Because I seem to be getting all the kills!" I responded.

"Gah! Williams! Alenko! With me. We aren't going to let this tin man beat us are we?" I could hear her grin underneath her helmet.

"Bring it on! We'll compare kills after!"

For the next five minutes we slowly made our way to the tram fighting geth along the way. Shepard, Williams and Alenko were in the front taking all the fire while I stayed back and took potshots at whatever Geth I could.

"Well, how many kills did you get Chief?" Shepard asked Williams after the last Geth was dead and the tram began its journey to the other end of the space port.

"My count is at 6 commander."

"Pfft. Amateur." Shepard said good naturedly. "You Alenko?"

"Just 3 commander."

"Don't worry about it. You were the one bringing down all their shields. I'd say for all the shields you overloaded you get another bonus 3 kills eh?" Shepard suggested slapping Alenko's back.

"And how many kills did you get, _Commander?_" I asked walking up to join the squad on the tram.

"A good 6.5, _Wraith._" She responded.

".5?"

"I had blown the arms off a trooper when a _sniper_ took out its head." Shepard informed Williams who had asked, glaring pointedly at me.

"So that one counts as half a kill for me too?" I asked. "No matter. That would only bring my kill count down to 7.5."

"Bah. And how many of those were kill steals?" Shepard grumbled.

"Ah come on. Don't be a sore looser. I'll buy you a drink on the Cit- oh wait. You owe me one. Never mind." I said in mock sympathy.

"Asshole."

"I love you too."

"Bastard."

"Bitch."

"Fucking Tin-man."

"Alright that is it. Insults to myself I can handle. But to the suit? You might hurt its feelings!" I exclaimed in mock agony.

"Don't be such a baby."

"Do they always act like this Lt.?" Williams asked Alenko quietly.

"I heard that." I called out sternly. "Gotta love the Nanosuit's hearing enhancements."

"I- uh" Willliams stuttered.

"Take it easy Chief. He's just messing with you." Shepard told her.

"Oh come on Shep! You don't allow me to have any fun!" I whined jokingly.

"Oh quit your whining. I'm beginning to think that I should maybe leave you behind to watch how real soldiers get it done."

"Real soldiers?" I asked incredulously, "Look Commander, You might have finished N-school in just under a year, beat nearly all of the records, including the records of Ryan Mitchell by the way, but I can tell you this. The training I went through makes the N-school look like a goddamn walk in the park."

"Oh really? So you had to get up at four in the morning, lead your squad through the wilderness with nothing but a single ration pack per person, go to sleep at midnight and repeat?" Shepard asked incredulously.

"Bah, you at least got four hours of sleep. I usually didn't get any sleep. I might not have had a squad, but I was running, jumping, climbing, sneaking for a month trying to escape guys in goddamn gunships. All of that without any sleep."

"Not bad but I would have expected more. You had the Nanosuit. That is an unfair advantage."

"Oh is it? I'll have you know that a previous N7 did the phantom training program and she said that it was much harder than the N- training. And you know what? The Phantom training program was based off of the training I first did. It wasn't nearly as hard."

"Well what about Elysium then? I held the line for hours by myself, waiting for reinforcements."

"I know Shep. I was there, remember? While you were "holding the line" as you put it, I was sabotaging the more dangerous equipment the Batarians were bringing in."

Shepard narrowed her eyes at me "You weren't on Akuze, trying to survive in a goddamn thresher nest while the rest of your squad died around you."

"No. No I wasn't." I said softly remembering that fateful day six years ago. "But I was there for Torfan."

"Ain't that the truth. We even had to rescue you once."

"I prefer to think of it as you distracting them allowing me to deal with the threat."

"Well that distraction cost two men their lives." Shepard said dryly.

"Yes well, casualties of war." I said grimly.

"It was necessary." Shepard agreed with me.

"Um... Excuse me Commander, sir," Williams said interrupting our conversation "but you were on Elysium, Akuze and Torfan with the Commander?"

"I was on Elysium and Torfan yes, Akuze I just rescued her from the oversized worms."

"What can you tell us about the Nanosuit?" Alenko asked me curiously, most likely as a means to change subject.

"Well, most of it is classified, but what I can tell you is that it has three different modes each dedicated to one thing. Armor, Cloak and Power. In order to run these modes the suit has energy reserves that it refills by using energy from the environment. Now I'm just going to have SECOND explain the different suit modes.

"_**Cloak provides temporary invisibility from hostiles. Movement while cloaked, rapidly drains suit energy.**_

_**Armor changes the Nanosuit's outer surface to absorb damage. Increased survivability near exploding munitions.**_

_**Power enhances the speed and strength of the wearer. Extreme usage rapidly drains suit energy."**_

"There you have it. The three modes all condensed nicely. Everything else is top secret and if I told you well..." I trailed off.

"You would have to kill us?" Shepard asked dryly.

"Well, I'd settle for removal of your memory but since we haven't figured out how to do that yet, I guess yeah. Damn it how long does this freaking tram take?" I asked angrily.

"I think that we're arriving now."

"Right. Get ready. We don't know what's waiting for us." Even as I said that we came under fire from Geth on a walkway above us. I activated armor as we all rushed into cover. Glancing around I saw something that made me hesitate for a second.

Alenko apparently saw the same thing as he shouted "Demolition charges! The Geth must have planted them!"

"_**Warning. Scan matches Trident nuclear ordnance casings."** _SECOND informed me as soon as it completed its scan.

"Those aren't just any demolition charges! Those are Nukes! They are trying to wipe out the entire colony!" I shouted.

"Alenko! Disarm those nukes! Williams cover the Lieutenant. Wraith, with me. Let's clear the way for Alenko!" Shepard ordered.

"Alright Commander! Let's move! Covering fire!" I shouted sprinting halfway up the ramp leading up to the walkway, sliding into cover just as my energy depleted. "Energy drained!" I shouted in warning Shepard.

She stayed back while my energy recharged, and once I gave the all clear, I activated armor mode and popped up laying down a spray of bullets that kept the Geth's heads down long enough for Shepard to charge past me and into cover at the top of the ramp. Ducking back in cover I waited for my energy to fully recharge. "Shepard! Get their heads down! But don't hit me by accident!" I shouted.

"What are you doing?" She yelled back at me even as she started laying down the fire.

"Getting in close!" I responded.

"_**Maximum Power."**_

I jumped up and out, grabbing onto the railing of the walkway leading over the tracks and pulling myself over it. I nailed two Geth with my SCAR before they could turn to face me. As the last three troopers turned towards me, I once more jumped up firing the entire time. I was able to take down one trooper and bring down the shields of another before landing behind the remaining two. I finished off the one without shields with a round in the back of the head before kicking the last Geth towards Shepard who finished it off with a blast from her shotgun.

"Nice job clearing that out, but I would have liked to have known what you were going to do before hand." Shepard told me as she sprinted into cover beside me.

"Sorry bout that. I keep forgetting that you're not linked to the suit. It makes teamwork so much easier!" I told her running to the next piece of cover.

"Linked?" She asked me taking down two troopers with her SCAR.

"Yeah, Nanosuits and GHOST armor can link their AI's or VI's together. In the case of the Nanosuit, SECOND will inform the others of what the wearer is about to do." I explained laying down a shower of bullets as Shepard rushed past me reaching the end of the walkway and the beginning of another walkway leading along the station's length.

"That sounds handy!" Now was Shepard's turn to lay down a blanket of fire as I ran into cover opposite her.

"It is! Now cover me! I'm going up and over these crates fast!" I told her activating power mode.

"I sometimes wonder if your insane!" She said sarcastically as she realized what I was going to do.

"When did a bit of insanity ever hurt anyone?" I asked. "Don't answer that." I added hurriedly. Taking a deep breath I jumped up onto the crate I was hiding behind and started sprinting and jumping along the top of the crates to the end of the walkway where a cluster of Geth were waiting for me. At the last crate I used up the rest of my energy to jump up as high as possible pulling out a grenade. Arming it I threw it right in the middle of the cluster. It detonated just as I landed behind the explosion. "Clear!" I shouted over the comm.

"Got it Wraith. Alenko is finishing up on a bomb here. As far as he can tell, there are four of total and he's got three down." Shepard told me.

"Got it. The last one is here. Defusing it now." I told her spotting the bomb and linking SECOND with its wireless interface.

"Why am I not surprised that you know how to disarm bombs?" Shepard asked me.

"In our line of work, one has to know how to defuse the occasional nuke." I told her. "Or at least have the manual handy. Anyway, I have a visual on the beacon and a couple of those spikes with husks on them."

"Copy that. Lets secure that beacon." Shepard said as she joined me, the rest of the squad behind her.

As we headed down towards the beacon the spikes started retracting. "Light em up!" Shepard yelled and we all opened fire. The husks apparently having absolutely no tactical mind at all charged headfirst into our fire, causing them to be mowed down quickly. The two geth hiding in between the husks were a bigger danger to us but Alenko and Shepard dealt with them, the former catching them in a biotic lift while the latter detonated said field with a warp tearing the geth to shreds.

"Clear!" Williams reported.

"Alright, now let's get this beacon aboard the Normandy" Shepard said.

"Unbelievable! Working Prothean technology." Alenko said in wonder looking over at the glowing beacon.

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." Williams told us, obviously meaning the glowing.

"True, but be careful." I said and I turned towards Shepard. Who was just finishing up her conversation with Anderson on the Normandy. Williams walked past me and joined her. I was just about to join her when all of a sudden something grabbed me and started dragging me back "What the- SECOND?"

"_**Unknown force detected."**_ SECOND told me and strange symbols started appearing on my visor as I felt myself being lifted up, at that moment I felt arms close around me and throw me to the side, the force disappeared and my visor cleared allowing me to see Shepard floating in place in front of the beacon.

"_**Warning, extreme electrical, sonic, and neurological activity detected.**_

_**Beacon overload imminent." **_

The beacon exploded, throwing Shepard away. Rushing over, SECOND performed a medical scan and determined that she was just unconscious. Looking over, I saw that Alenko had apparently called the Normandy as it landed and some of it's Marines had come out, rifles at the ready. Picking up Sheppard, I began to carry her to the medbay. I paused before I entered the Normandy looking back at the beacon's remains as three words flashed on my visor.

_**Primary Objective: Failed**_.

_A/N: Alright. So I have two things to say. Firstly I will be updating a new chapter every other Saturday. So expect to see the next chapter on the 10th of November. The chapters won't be as long as before but I believe that this way I can actually get more out in general. This is subject to change however, depending on how fast I write my chapters and how the rest of my life goes. This is my last year at school before University so it could definitely get stressful for me._

_Secondly I am accepting submissions for Inquisitors! If you want to have a Inquisitor in NE or even an entire Inquisitor team now is your chance. So a few things for the submissions. Your inquisitors may or may not have a large role in the story, but they will definitely get a cameo. _

_If you submit a character (or more than one) Give me as much information as possible about him/her. For example:_

Real name. Codename.

Race

History

Personality

Special abilities (Biotic?)

Loadout

Combat style

Anything else you think I should know.

_Right now all races except Geth, Vorcha and Elcor are inquisitors. However some races are not that common, for instance there won't be too many Quarian inquisitors, or Volus etc._

_EDIT: Alright, so after a few submissions I realized that I didn't give enough information on the inquisitors. Firstly, GHOST armor is developed in 2180, three years before ME1. The first inquisitor team goes into service 2181. Secondly. Inquisitors are more like modern SWAT teams. They are going to be dealing with hostage situations, criminals, Gang wars etc. The Phantoms are doing the black ops stuff. Assassination, sabotage etc. are Phantom stuff. Finally, Inquisitors usually act in teams, so while the occasional lone wolf inquisitor is alright, I would ask that you rather submit inquisitors that work will in a team, or even submit an entire team, however that is not easy I admit, coming up with an entire team of OC's. I hope that that gives you guys more information._

_Lastly loadout, so pretty much they can use any weapon available to them at the time. But I am using the ME2/3 weapons in NE1 events so those would be avenger assault rifles, predator pistol etc. However there are also the CryTech Armory weapons that you can use. I put up a link to a Google Doc with all the Weapons and Modifications made by CryTech on my profile. So if you're interested you can go there and check em out. _

_If you want to see how the GHOST armor looks like there is a link on my profile as well. Remember, the GHOST armor can be modified to best suit your inquisitors strengths. So include those as well. _

_Just leave a review with your submissions or send me a PM. _

_If you have any questions PM me or leave a review. _

_Also someone not logged in left a review saying that some confusing and fuddled parts. Could you please tell me exactly what was confusing? Thanks for reviewing anyway!_

_Anyway, Until the 10th! _

_~LEGION_


	3. Chapter 3: Unraveling the Mystery

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis. If I did NE would be a game. But alas I don't. EA, Bioware and Crytek do. _**

**_Also thanks again to DN7 for his work on betaing NE._**

After boarding the Normandy, I was immediately swarmed by Anderson who wanted me to explain what happened down there. With Shepard unconscious I was, unofficially, the most experienced soldier on the ground team.

"Wraith, what the hell happened down there?" he asked as we started walking towards the elevator. "Shepard called in to say the beacon is secure and a minute later Alenko says Shepard is unconscious and the beacon is destroyed."

"A beacon overload, not quite sure what exactly happened. We had secured the beacon when Shepard contacted you. I observed the beacon from what should have been a safe distance, then turned around to talk to Shepard when I was grabbed by an unknown force, presumably from the beacon, and I don't know what caused it."

"It was my fault sirs." Alenko's voice came from behind us, "I think I got too close to it and triggered a security field. It grabbed me for a moment but immediately let go and went for you sir." He told us.

"Alenko, I had told you to be careful moments before. Did you not listen?" I asked, face palming.

"Sorry sir," was his dejected reply.

"Just... Next time we see a strange alien artifact, stay back ok?" I asked. "So it selectively grabbed me, even if Alenko was the closest to the beacon. Then SECOND registered some neurological activity. Which means the beacon possibly implanted some data directly into Shepard's mind."

"So then why would it actively go for you Wraith?" Anderson asked me as we stepped into the elevator.

"Ease of access." I muttered. "The Nanosuit. It's communication suite combined with SECOND's advanced information processing allows it to access, decrypt, and filter through thousands of wireless transmission signals. Nearly anything with a wavelength pattern could potentially be used to transmit data, but we've had issues trying to relay information across a significant distance at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The beacon could have detected the wider net the suit employs for data collection and decided that it would have been easiest to transmit the information to the nanosuit, or rather to me through the nanosuit. The suit does have the neurological bond with the wearer after all."

"So you think it implanted its information from the beacon into Shepard's mind? What effects could that have?" Anderson asked me as the elevator door opened and we stepped out.

"Political? Medical? Technological?" I asked dryly. "This is something we need to discuss in private. Meet me in my office as soon as you can."

Anderson sighed, out of stress or anger I don't know. "Very well. I'll have Joker bring us to the Citadel, check in on Shepard, then I'll join you."

"Good, see you later then." I said heading towards my office past the sleeper pods.

The door opened to show the interior of my office. A desk with an extranet terminal that had a secure connection to CryNet and a chair were the only things in it. Taking a seat, I informed the other CryNet directors of the imminent conversation.

It didn't take long for Anderson to knock on the door.

"Enter." I called out looking up as he entered. "Good. Captain, let me introduce you to most of the CryNet board." I said gesturing to my left where the holographic images of three men stood. "First we have Director Niel Teems, Director of Alpha Tech and Sciences."

"_Captain Anderson." _

"Director Derek Antonov. Director of CryTech."

"_Captain." _

"And Director Axel Petersen. Director of CryTell."

"_Captain Anderson."_

"Directors. If you don't mind me asking, aren't there supposed to be four directors?" Anderson asked.

"_Indeed." _Niel smirked, slightly glancing at me. _"Director Martin Duncan of CryOps is unavailable at the moment."_

"_Yeah, probably off having fun while we have to do the paperwork."_ Derek grumbled good naturedly.

"_Now that we're introduced, please continue with the briefing Operative." _Axel interjected impatiently.

"Yes sir." I nodded once. "As you already know, the objective to retrieve the beacon on Eden Prime failed. What you probably don't know is that we may have a rogue Spectre on our hands. I was able to see Nihlus' last moments when I arrived at a vantage point overlooking the spaceport. It was then I noticed another Turian there. I was able to get a positive ID match identifying him as Saren Arterius. I grew suspicious as we had not been informed by the Council that Saren would be there. Then SECOND informed me of an intercepted a transmission it decrypted that had Saren telling the Geth to keep Shepard's squad from reaching the beacon and that he would be dealing with Nihlus. I tried to warn him but something attempted to hack my suit. It was able to sever my connection to the suit and locked me down. I was forced to watch as Saren murdered Nihlus in cold blood."

"Damn it," Anderson swore. "This is bad."

"_Indeed. Saren is well known for his hatred of humanity. If he has indeed gone rogue... Dark times may be upon us."_ Axel said.

"_What about the beacon operative? What happened to it?" _Niel asked me.

"Once we reached the beacon we called for pickup. Shortly after, I started being pulled back by something. Apparently it was the beacon and had specifically searched me out. Lieutenant Alenko told me that it activated and had started pulling him in when it stopped and grabbed me instead. It was then that Shepard threw me out of the way and took my place in the beacon's field. After a few seconds of Shepard twitching while floating in front of the beacon, it overloaded, knocking her unconscious. Sending you what data I got from it to you now."

I began the upload, which went by fairly quickly thanks to SECOND's ability to compress even the largest files down to only a fraction of their original size. The added benefit to faster up and downloads was the increased security. The less time data spent in transit, the less time any potential hackers or information brokers had to catch it, manipulate it, and send it on it's original way (while 'catch-and-release' programs are largely illegal, it's nearly impossible to prove their use unless the data is being sent over optic cables with the latest in quantum-cryptographic coding).

_"Interesting..." _Derek muttered before explaining, _"At first glance of the broad spectrum scan SECOND was able to perform, it looks like the beacon was designed to imprint its information directly in the users mind using a type of infra-ultrasonic hybrid wavelength to effect appropriate areas of a beings nervous system. Of course the tech was made for a Prothean's physiology so there is no knowing what effect it could have on a human. I'd say the overload was due to damage from a combination of old age and some other factors. Is it possible that it was used before you got there?"_

"Very possible I'd say. Saren obviously wanted the beacon, since he didn't take it I assume that he used it," I mused. "When we got there the beacon was glowing, and Williams did say that it wasn't when they dug it up."

"Excuse me, but are you saying that the beacon imprinted something into the mind of my XO?" Anderson asked slightly confused.

"_Yes. That is exactly what we are saying. The only question is what?"_ Axel said.

"Are there any problems that might come up because of this?" Anderson asked.

_"I assume you mean medical?" _Niel asked him, continuing on Anderson's nod. _"As Derek said before, the side effects of a piece of technology nearly 50,000 years old interfacing with a species mind it was never intended for can't be predicted. At best, Shepard will make a full recover and tell us exactly what was imprinted..."_

"And at worst?..." Anderson pressed Niel who sighed.

"_She'll be in a vegetative state or worse for the rest of her life."_

Anderson struggled to keep the shock of that statement from showing and simply nodded. "She's tough, I have every bit of confidence Shepard will come through. Now what about Saren?"

"_That could present a definite problem. I believe in Wraith's verbal testimony against Saren, yet the Council will not be happy about their top agent being accused of treason with out some definite proof. I don't suppose your suit's memory will have the scan recognition on record Wraith?"_ Niel asked me.

"No. Corrupted by the intrusion. It might be salvageable but we would need a Cradle to retrieve them." I answered.

"_Of course not, that would be too easy." _Niel grumbled in annoyance. _"Captain, I suppose that you will be heading to the Citadel now?" _

"That is correct. We should arrive in about seventeen hours."

"_Good. Wraith, when you dock, I want you to immediately go to our base and get those files extracted and rebuilt. You'll get your new orders later."_ Niel 'ordered' me.

"Yes sir." I responded.

"_Captain, it's been nice talking to you. Teems out." _The three directors holograms then fizzed out of existence.

"I suppose I should check in on Shepard and get the paperwork done." Anderson said as he turned to leave.

"I should check in on her as well. She did try to save me from the beacon." I said also standing.

"Try?" Anderson asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I think that I would have had an easier time processing the connection with the beacon due to the nanosuit, but it's the thought that counts right?" I said.

"Indeed it does. Do you really think that your suit could have handled the beacon?"

"Probably." I answered as we walked past the sleeper pods "Since it looks like the beacon selectively went for me it must have thought so as well. Interesting really. I wonder if telepathy was common amongst the Protheans or if it was just in the beacon for ease of data transfer..."

"Anything is possible I suppose." Anderson murmured as we entered the med bay where Dr. Chakwas was monitoring Shepard. "Ah Doctor, how is our XO?"

"Well I'd say most of the damage was superficial and done by the beacon exploding and knocking her out." Chakwas said. "It appears that the Commander is merely sleeping at the moment, although I have noticed an increase in her rapid eye movement."

"So the beacon probably imprinted some kind of message and she's reliving it now." I mused.

"Correct. It could become a problem if the vision is traumatic or horrific in nature but we won't know for sure until she wakes up."

"Alright. Keep me notified doctor. I have some work to do." Anderson said leaving the med-bay.

"How long will she be out doc?" I asked as Anderson disappeared.

"Any normal soldier I'd say twenty four hours at least. Shepard's a fighter though so I'd expect her to be up in fifteen." Chakwas told me.

"Alright. So I'll see you in fourteen."

"Indeed, you will."

I left the med bay to do some work in my office. Arriving I checked through various reports and looked for any possible evidence against Saren, but came up empty after nearly nine hours. So I decided to catch some sleep.

Waking up five hours later when SECOND woke me, I got up and went to the med-bay to check in on Shepard. Entering I saw Kaidan sitting on a bed next to Shepard's. "How long have you been sitting here Kaidan?" I asked sitting down next to him.

"Just came in half an hour ago."

"Good. Hope you got some rest then Lieutenant."

"Yes sir. It really is all my fault the mission failed. I got too curious."

I had expected such a reaction and was ready for it. "Maybe it was your fault the mission failed. Maybe I did tell you to be careful just before. But unless you knew that the beacon would explode it's not your fault. Curiosity is usually a good thing, but the trick is to temper the curiosity with caution. It's a lesson we all have to learn and I'm sure you won't make the same mistake again."

Kaidan merely grunted, unconvinced, when SECOND suddenly piped up _**"Alert. Commander Shepard is regaining consciousness."**_

"Well it seems that someone has had enough beauty sleep." I joked as I stood up.

"How would you know-" Kaidan asked cutting himself off as Shepard began to stir slightly. "Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she's waking up." He called out as Shepard groaned.

Chakwas came out of her office at Kaidan's call. Shepard then sat herself up on the bed, resting her head in her hands for a bit.

"You worried us there a bit, Shepard. How are you feeling?" Chakwas inquired as she ran a quick scan of Shepard.

"Like the morning after shore leave," Shepard groaned. "How long was I out?"

"About fourteen hours. I was expecting you to be out for another hour at least." Chakwas answered.

"Gah. What happened down there? Everything's kinda fuzzy."

"It's my fault commander. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. It reached out and grabbed Wraith. You had to throw him out of the way." Kaidan immediately blamed himself.

"So you knew that the beacon would trigger a security field that would draw someone in, forcing me to throw them out of the way Alenko?" Shepard asked sarcastically.

"What? No!"

"Then how is it your fault? You had no way of knowing what would happen Kaidan, stop blaming yourself."

"Besides, we don't even know if that's what set it off." Chakwas continued to reassure him.

"Yeah, anyway the beacon overloaded and blew up, knocking you unconscious. I carried you back to the ship, bringing your pending bar tab to two drinks." I joked.

"It's nice to see I'm wanted." she grumbled.

"Yes well on to your health," Chakwas said "Physically your fine. But I detected an increase in your rapid eye movement. Usually associated with intense dreaming."

"We figured the beacon imprinted some kind of vision in your mind and you were reliving it." I told Shepard.

"Yeah." She sighed "I saw- something. Death, destruction. Nothing is clear."

"Hmm... I should add that to my report. It may- Oh. Captain Anderson." Chakwas said breaking off from her musing as Anderson walked up to us having entered the med-bay unnoticed.

"How's our XO holding up doctor?" He asked.

"All scans look as normal as they can be, judging by the fact that she had a vision imprinted in her mind by the beacon." Chakwas said wryly, "I'd say she will be fine. But I want her to be careful and come right back if any problems show up."

"Glad to hear it. Shepard, Wraith I need to speak to both of you, in private." Anderson dismissed Kaidan and Chakwas.

"Aye aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." Kaidan saluted while Chakwas left silently.

After the door slid shut Anderson turned towards Shepard "Are you sure you're ok commander?"

"I'm pissed off sir. The Geth killed one of my squad, and I'm going to make them pay." She growled reminding me of Torfan, where after loosing most of her squad to the Batarians she proceeded to kill all slavers in that base, dispensing her own justice.

"Jenkins wasn't your fault commander. You couldn't do anything to save him." Anderson reassured her thinking that she was blaming herself.

"I know that sir. It still pisses me off. Where's Gunnery Chief Williams?" She changed the subject.

"In the mess as I recall." I answered.

"I reassigned her to the Normandy. After losing Jenkins we had a spot open." Anderson explained.

"Good. She's a good soldier. We could use her."

"Alenko thought so too. Now then let's get down to business. Things look bad at the moment. A Spectre dead, the beacon destroyed, the Geth invading, and we are going to be accusing another Spectre of treason." Anderson told her.

"Not just any Spectre, one of their best and most decorated. They are _not_ going to like our accusations." I continued, "However the situation is better than it would be if I wasn't there."

"You think rather highly of yourself don't you?" Shepard asked wryly.

"Yes, well I think highly of CryNet." I agreed "CryNet has quite a bit of pull with the Council so we should be able to stall the Council from making a decision until we can dig up some evidence. Once we have evidence, I am fairly confident that we can get you into the Spectre's with the mission to hunt down Saren."

"You can do all that?" Shepard asked surprised.

"Yes, with help from Ambassador Udina, we can definitely get all that done. The hard part is getting evidence on Saren."

"A rogue Spectre's trouble. Saren isn't the Council's best for nothing and as a Spectre getting evidence on him will be very difficult. If we're lucky we can salvage the data from my suit." I sighed "Unfortunately it might not be enough. Saren might, and probably will, accuse us of faking the data. There has to be more evidence out there. Maybe the Shadow Broker has some."

"Well what do we know about Saren?" Shepard asked.

"He hates humans." Anderson said shortly.

"Saren didn't attack Eden Prime simply because he hates humans." I grumbled.

"No, he obviously came for the beacon." Shepard agreed "But how did he ally himself with the Geth?"

"I'd say he promised them something. Maybe the beacon, maybe something else." Anderson mused.

"But what would the Geth, or even Saren, want with a vision of murder and mayhem?" I asked.

"What was in the vision Shepard? Do you think it could help us?" Anderson asked.

"Well, I saw synthetics. Murdering people. Causing massive destruction, extinction." That description reminded me of something at the back of my head, something that eluded my memory, but gave me a bad feeling.

"Geth?" Anderson asked.

"No, I don't think so. Although, something about it seems familiar to that ship we saw."

"So it's a Prothean warning about synthetics butchering organics, and that ship is tied in somehow. Which would indicate that the ship is over fifty thousand years old." Anderson said.

"It is strange. I only hope that the Council will do something about it. Us accusing Saren of treason is bad enough. Now we say that the Prothean beacon warned us of extinction through synthetics? A warning that came through a dream? If I hadn't been there even I would say that sounds farfetched." I grumbled.

"I know what I saw!" Shepard defended herself.

"I believe you Shepard. But I don't know if the Council will, which is who needs convincing." I told her.

"But we have to tell them! This could help them prepare if in fact Saren is plotting to use the Geth to wipe out humanity!" Anderson exclaimed.

"It will only help them prepare if they believe us which, with only the vision from the beacon, they won't." I argued.

Anderson sighed realizing the truth in my words.

"So how do we convince them?" Shepard asked.

"We don't tell them." I said simply, continuing at Shepard's incredulous face "We don't tell them until we have more proof. Only then can we tell them what we found."

Anderson sighed. "Politically it makes sense. It's probably the best and possibly only way we can convince them."

"Now we need to focus on Saren." I told them.

"I'll find someway to bring him down." Shepard cracked her knuckles.

I let out a mirthless laugh "Hah, easier said than done. He's a Spectre. As long as he hasn't officially gone rogue he can do anything he damn well pleases. That's why we need evidence. We need to prove that he was behind the attack on Eden prime, and so far, we don't have any evidence. I saw him kill Nihlus and that's not compelling enough evidence with the suit feed corrupted."

"So we need to prove that he's gone rogue. Then the Council will revoke his Spectre status." Shepard concluded.

"That's the plan." Anderson nodded, "I'll contact Ambassador Udina. Hopefully he can convince the Council to hold a hearing. We'll meet him as soon as we reach the Citadel. Get yourself ready Commander, we should be arriving within the hour." Anderson turned and left the med-bay.

I hesitated before making up my mind as Shepard and I left the med-bay "Shepard." I said turning to face her. "Meet me in my office as soon as you can. We have something to discuss."

She paused raising her eyebrow at me, but still nodded once, turning towards Ashley Williams who wanted to talk to her. I turned and made my way into my office to wait. A few minutes later the chime sounded and Shepard walked in. "So Wraith. What do we have to discuss." She asked coming straight to the point.

"Please, sit down." I motioned towards a chair in front of my desk, continuing when she sat down. "SECOND, secure the room please."

"_**Room secured." **_One of the features of the comm suite was not only the ability to gather data through thousands of wavelengths, but also to jam them all with junk data in a small area for a short time.

"Now then, events are proceeding rapidly, Shepard. I fully expect that you will be made a Spectre when we prove Saren a traitor. You will then no doubt be assigned to hunt Saren down and bring him to justice. The Council will then no doubt want to make sure Saren will be brought down and contract CryNet to help. We will of course accept and help you on your mission. A Phantom will no doubt be assigned to assist you on your ship and I'll make sure that it's me.

News of your Spectre induction will spread quickly and I fully expect people you don't even know to pour their worries and situations on to you. Don't even bother contemplating them all. Just say you'll have it taken care of and send any you don't want to handle to CryNet and we'll do the rest. You will need to focus on Saren, and we'll help as much as we possibly can."

She had her eyebrow raised at the end of my monologue. "This all hinges on me becoming a Spectre and CryNet agreeing to help."

I snorted, "Oh, you will become a Spectre alright. That's almost guaranteed."

"Say that I do become a Spectre," She challenged. "How do you know that CryNet will do what you say it will? How do you plan on being the Phantom assigned to me?"

I chuckled. "And that leads me into the next thing I wanted to tell you. CryNet will do what I because of who I am. Commander Shepard, it's my pleasure to introduce you to-" I took off my helmet, "- CryOps Director Martin Duncan."

Shepard, like Anderson before, did her best to conceal her shock before saying anything.

"You have got to be kidding me. You're a director of CryNet? And you go out in the field?"

"Yeah, I prefer to stay in the action." I smiled, the first one Shepard could actually see.

"Then who does all the paperwork?"

"Most of the logistics of CryOps is handled by CARLA. I only need to do the absolute necessary, which I can do when I'm not in the field. If something important comes up, the other Directors can make a temporary decision until I can make a permanent one."

"Carla?"

"Yeah, Crynet Analysis, Reallocation and Logistics Advisor. She's the CryOps AI."

"Oh right. I suppose AI's play a big role in CryNet?"

"Oh yeah. We have a bunch of AI's helping us run the place. They're really nice actually. We have one for each branch and then some more."

"Each branch?"

"CryNet is split up into three branches. CryOps, CryTell and CryTech. CryOps is the one I'm director of and consists of the Phantoms and Inquisitors. CryTell is our information branch, and CryTech is our research and development branch. I think you can figure out what they do from there."

"I can." She said nodding. "I don't suppose CryTell has anything on Saren?"

"No." I sighed. "Unfortunately we don't. But it's only a matter of time really."

"I see. Well-" She was interrupted by Anderson's voice over the intercom.

"Commander Shepard to the bridge. Commander Shepard please report to the bridge."

"Well I better get going then." Shepard said standing up.

"I'll join you, one moment." I said picking up my helmet and putting it on. As it sealed itself I said, "Alright lets go. SECOND, lift security measures and please unlock the door."

"_**Door unlocked."**_

As we passed Ashley in the mess hall she called out to me, "Hey Wraith!"

"Yes?" I asked turning to face her.

"I wanted to know why CryNet hasn't released the Nanosuit to the Alliance. Having even one squad might have helped us on Eden Prime."

I paused for a second before answering. "The answer is easy, but you won't like it. If we would release the nanosuit to the Alliance, it would only be a matter of time before the tech would become widespread. Without the suit, CryNet doesn't have the edge over everyone else."

"So you didn't release it because you wanted to be more powerful than everyone else?" She asked angrily.

I raised my hands up in an apologetic means. "That's not the only reason Williams. Could you imagine the arms race that could happen? Or what would happen if pirates got their hands on it?"

Ashley opened and closed her mouth a bit before finally finding the proper words. "I understand, but it could still have saved Eden Prime."

"Possibly, but the Nanosuit doesn't make the wearer invincible. It's more suited to cloak and dagger than full on assault. Fully blown firefights is what GHOST armor is for."

"I've heard of the stuff, but haven't seen it in action. What's the big deal behind it?"

"Guardian Heavy Offensive Strategic Trooper, or GHOST armor for short, is what the Inquisitors wear and essentially is a fusion between the Nanosuit and modern armor. Unlike the Nanosuit, GHOST armor is available to the public for purchase. Spectre's, N7's, even some STG agents wear GHOST armor if they can afford it. It's top of the line customizable armor and can be customized to suit your preferred combat style. Of course such customization requires some intense calibration before it's worn, but believe me it's worth the edge you get."

Ashley let out a long whistle. "Well, I wouldn't mind having a set of that."

I chuckled. "Good luck saving up for it as it costs enough to outfit a full Alliance N-squad. As I said, the Spectres, STG and N7's use it only if they can afford it, and there aren't that many that can. Anyway, I think it's time for us to get up to the bridge so if you'll excuse me."

"Yes sir."

The walk up to the bridge was fairly quiet and when we arrived Joker immediately greeted us "Good timing Commander. I was just about to bring us into the Citadel. See that taxpayer money at work."

I felt the shudder of relay transit as we were thrown across the galaxy and into the widow system where the citadel awaited us. "Holy- Look at that thing!" I turned towards Ashley who was staring out the window.

"The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel fleet." Kaidan said looking out next to her.

"And the stupidest ship ever to fly in space." I grumbled.

"Why so touchy Wraith?" Ashley asked me.

"Ok seriously? That thing may look impressive but from a tactical standpoint it's filled with weaknesses it might as well be Swiss cheese. That massive hole in the middle? Seriously, who designs their ship with a hole in the middle, I understand that its a propulsion system, allowing the Ascension to go faster than a normal dreadnought, but what good is that in combat? Not much, it will allow you to get closer faster where you will be destroyed due to that massive hole. As for retreating, maybe, then again structural weakness. That propulsion system is the asari's way of saying 'We have more advanced technology than you do, we can have a massive particle accelerator as a propulsion system.' Its supposed to look impressive, but it makes the structure so much weaker."

"Alliance carriers have holes in them." Shepard said interrupting my rant.

"Yeah, but two things. One those holes are a lot smaller than that and secondly they actually serve a viable purpose. Not to mention if a single round goes into that hole the entire ship will be gutted. Then whats with all the windows? A fighter round or torpedo through a window will wreak havoc on the ship. Windows are structural weaknesses and have no place on military ships. Space stations and transports, fine. People want to look out at the stars. Military vessels should ideally not have any windows, a few is fine but don't cover your entire ship in windows. Not to mention that those big tall spire things make it impossible for anti fighter guns to get full coverage. They would end up firing at themselves. Hell it even looks like a giant target, just waiting to be shot. And don't get me started on the armament. Its about four times the size of an alliance dreadnought but doesn't boast four times the weaponry. It boasts maybe twice as much. If that much. And most of those guns are smaller Mass Accelerators that don't run the length of the ship, which is just barely longer than a 1000m dreadnought by the way, but are situated on those spires and as such are of more use on a cruiser than a dreadnought."

"But look at that monster. It's main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet." Ashley countered.

"Ha. Trust me, it could rip through the barriers, after a few shots. Maybe a couple less than any other ship but it would still take a few shots. Meanwhile if the enemy is smart, they will be targeting the windows and it would fall fairly quickly. I will give it this however. If it didn't have all the giant windows then that thing would be very hard to crack. Even once the barriers go down, which are among the strongest in the galaxy. So yeah, the Destiny Ascension is pretty much a giant target to take fire while other smaller ships do the damage." I finished my rant glaring at the distant ship.

"Well... I hope you feel better getting that out." Shepard smirked.

"Hell yes!" I said chuckling as Joker began to bring the Normandy into dock. When I felt the docking tube connect with the Normandy I turned silently and headed towards the airlock. "Have fun with the Ambassador, Shepard. I hope we see each other soon." Any response was cut off by the airlock door sliding shut behind me. I waited for the decontamination procedure to finish and after a minute the door slid open and I walked out. I entered the elevator that would bring me down to C-Sec headquarters and hit the button to descend. After the lengthy ride I found a CryNet car waiting for me. The driver introduced himself as he drove me to the CryNet base at the end of Kithoi ward.

As the car circled down to park, I saw an Inquisitor team doing drills with the base security forces who were interested in joining the Inquisitors. With only one team currently deployed on the Citadel, after a short process of elimination on team location I knew that it was Riker team's turn to be here. Getting out of the car I was met by the Inquisitors who had stopped their drill as we landed.

"Operative Wraith! It's good to see you. We heard about Eden Prime." Their team lead, Parchman, said. The Rikers were one of the top inquisitor teams in Crynet, just below Titan, the first inquisitor team. As such the Rikers are one of the few Inquisitor teams who could sometimes take me down in practice matches.

"Thank you Parchman. It was fairly rough down there." I told him heading towards the main building which housed the labs.

"I can imagine." Another Inquisitor, Leavenworth, commented. "Geth showing up outside the Perseus Veil for the first time in centuries to attack a human colony?"

"Come on Leavenworth. You and your damn conspiracy theories." Folsam, groaned. "The Geth probably just decided it was time to show everyone that they still exist." Folsam was Riker's medic and tech specialist while Chino and Leavenworth, along with Behrendt were its Assault troopers. Behrendt also doubled as its Sniper when needed. Lastly Parchman and Alcatraz were powerful biotics.

"Come on! Am I the only one seeing this here? There is obviously something bigger going on!" Leavenworth defended himself.

"I'll admit, it does seem a bit fishy." Behrendt agreed.

"Not you too Behrendt!" Folsam complained "What do you think Alcatraz?"

"Well they obviously didn't attack Eden Prime for the tea." Alcatraz quipped.

"I suppose the fact that they don't need to eat or drink does rule that out." I mused smirking.

"Technically they drink electricity. Maybe oil as well." Alcatraz responded.

"All I can say for now is that there's something bigger going on than just an attack on a colony." I told them bringing an end to the speculation.

"See? I knew it!" Leavenworth crowed.

"There's a rogue Spectre behind that attack. He tried to get a Prothean beacon unearthed on Eden Prime." I answered them directly.

"Well that's interesting. So why are you here?" Parchman asked me.

"The suit's memory was corrupted on Eden Prime. Going to see if it can be recovered." I told him.

"That explains the labs." Leavenworth commented, noticing that we had come to a stop in front of the labs.

"Indeed. I better get this done. Rikers, good day." I nodded at them and walked through the door into the labs. Extracting the corrupted data from my suit was the easy part and was done in a matter of minutes. Now came the hard part. Recovering the useful data from the corrupted data which we sent off to the Prism, where the stations AI's could get to work recovering it. Since it would take awhile I had plenty of time to get some other stuff set up.

_**A/N: Alright, so Alcatraz cameo! And he's an inquisitor? For now at least. **_

**_Thanks to everyone who submitted an inquisitor OC, but I am by no means done! I need some more so don't hesitate on submitting any, I however do ask for history for your character so I don't have to think up twenty nanobillion histories for all these characters. (Love that word. Nanobillion). Anyway, just so you guys know, I have a bunch of chapters ready as a buffer so that I can keep the every other Saturday deadline no matter what happens. _**

**_So see you guys on the 24th! Four days after Planetside 2 comes out and two days after ACIII. Also a few days before ME3: Omega. Oh boy!_**

**_Please review and leave your feedback!_**


	4. Chapter 4: Revealing a Traitor

_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Mass Effect or Crysis. If I did I'd be rich._

_Partially unbeta'ed as DN7 was very busy this week. He did the best he could though and I tried the rest, which won't be as good as what he could put out._

**Revealing a Traitor**

SSV Normandy, shortly after Wraith's exit, Shepard POV

Wraith's sudden exit seemed to raise a few eyebrows, the only one not surprised was Captain Anderson. A short briefing and taxi ride later, Anderson, Ashley, Kaidan and Shepard found themselves in the human embassies where the Ambassador told them that the Council had grudgingly agreed to hold a hearing.While the Captain and Ambassador went on ahead to get everything set up for the hearing and make sure that Shepard had clearance to enter the Council chambers the squad spent some time sightseeing on the Presidium. Anderson called, after half an hour of looking at the spectacular presidium sights, telling Shepard to meet them in the council chambers. Ten minutes later, five of which were spent in the elevator leading up to the chambers, Shepard arrived in the Citadel tower to see a C-Sec officer arguing with the Executor of C-Sec, Pallin.

"He's hiding something. I know it! I need more time, stall them!"

"Stall the Council?" Pallin asked incredulously. "Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over Garrus."

The officer sighed as Pallin walked away and noticed Shepard coming his way. "Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian, I was the officer in charge of C-Sec's investigation into Saren."

"Judging by your argument with the Executor there, you didn't find much." Shepard commented.

"You're right. Saren's a Spectre, most of his activities are classified, which means I couldn't find anything solid. But I know he's up to something. I think the human phrase is, 'I feel it in my gut."

Shepard smirked at his use of a human expression.

"I think that the Council is ready for us Commander." Kaidan interrupted noticing Anderson standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the Council chambers.

"Good luck Commander. Maybe they'll listen to you." Garrus said.

Shepard nodded at him and continued on to meet Anderson who urged them on, "The hearing's already started. Come on!"

As Shepard came into earshot she heard the asari councilor, Tevos, say "The geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved in any way." By then Shepard had reached to top of the stairs and could see the three Councilors standing on a podium on the opposite side of a chasm that held a garden. Ambassador Udina was standing on a podium that hung over the garden while a massive hologram of a turian, assumedly Saren, was projected to the left.

Sparatus, the turian councilor continued "The investigation by Citadel Security has turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason."

"And how exactly is Citadel Security supposed to find evidence when they cannot access most of Saren's files due to them being classified?"

A loud voice cut in as a new hologram shimmered into view on Shepard's right. The appearance of this new hologram caused quite a stir within the Council chambers. Shepard's eyes widened slightly as she recognized the person. It was Wraith, or rather Martin Duncan the Director of CryOps. He was wearing a suit with the CryNet logo stamped on his chest. Had Wraith not shown Shepard his face, she wouldn't have been able to even guess Martin and Wraith were the same person by their voice. When he was in the nanosuit, his voice was markedly different than the one being broadcasted from the hologram's speakers.

After sizing up holographic Wraith she saw that "Director Duncan", as she decided to call him in this persona, was staring down at the Council, face set in a blank mask as he waited for a response.

"Director Duncan." Tevos greeted neutrally "I do not see why you are here. This hearing has nothing to do with CryNet."

"Actually, Councilor, it does." The Director corrected, careful to not show any condescension. "It was a CryNet Phantom that witnessed the murder of Nihlus Kryik so we should have been part of this hearing from the beginning. I am sure that you merely forgot in the surpise and chaos of recent events."

"You say that your Phantom witnessed the murder of Nihlus at the hands of Saren, yet you show no proof, proof that you should have in the form your nanosuit data." Sparatus retorted.

"The data was corrupted when an unknown entity attempted to seize control of Operative Wraith's nanosuit." Wraith answered. "The attack was successfully repulsed but the data was corrupted. CryNet is hard at work recovering the data but it will take time."

"Don't you see what is really going on? CryNet is simply using the opportunity to supply false evidence, allowing them to frame me of killing a fellow Spectre and friend! I suspect that it was in fact this Phantom of theirs who killed Nihlus!"

Valern, the salarian councilor shook his head at that accusation. "CryNet has no motive in killing Nihlus. He had always been very supportive of CryNet in the past. Killing him would give them nothing."

"But they could be faking the data anyway!" Sparatus said.

"By all means, Councilors, I will send you the corrupted data." Wraith challenged. "I am sure that you will also be able to recover the data if we can." the Director said.

"Still a possibility," Valern said. "Yet we have ways of testing for legitimacy."

"Very well. CryNet will send us the corrupted data now and the recovered data when they have it." Tevos said finally.

"Councilors! You cannot actually be entertaining this human's proposal! Nihlus was my friend." Saren protested.

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Anderson shouted from beside Shepard. At that Shepard noticed director Duncan close his eyes in exasperation for a second before resuming his facade.

"Captain Anderson. Is joining up with CryNet the only way you could try to bring me down? The fact that you are still trying just shows us your arrogance." Saren sneered.

Shepard stayed silent, knowing that Saren was trying to get a rise out of them, trying to make the council question their motives.

After a few seconds Saren continued addressing Shepard herself as it became obvious that she would stay silent "And this must be your protege. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."

"I would be careful about laying blame around, Spectre." the Director interjected.

"Bah. Human's are not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres."

"He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!" Ambassador Udina shouted looking slightly put out that he hasn't had the opportunity to say much until now.

"I have to agree with the Ambassador." the Director said narrowing his eyes at Saren, one of the few emotions to have shown on his face since he arrived.

"Shepard's admission into the Spectres is NOT the purpose of this meeting." Tevos said sharply.

"This meeting has no purpose. The humans are wasting your time Councilors and mine." Saren growled.

"I would actually say that this meeting's purpose is very important. We are after all looking into a matter of galactic security." The Director commented.

"Indeed and it is of the upmost importance." Valern agreed.

"Very well. This meeting is adjourned until such a time when a more informed decision can be made." Tevos stated.

"I'm glad to see that Justice may still be served." The Director said ominously before his hologram faded out of existence.

"I suppose I should be grateful for Duncan's intervention there, I believe that without him the Council may have dismissed our claims. With you there, Captain, the Council would have only questioned our motives." Udina said "Yet I can't help but wonder if Duncan has another motive."

"It's possible, but I think that he just wants to bring Saren down as well." Anderson commented.

"I have no doubt that he wants to bring Saren down, it's his motives for doing so that concern me. Nevertheless we have a lot of work cut out for us. We should conduct our own independent investigation in the meantime, hopefully we can get more evidence to complement CryNet's."

"Good idea. Where should I start?" Shepard asked.

After getting two leads for her investigation Shepard headed to Chora's Den to talk to a C-Sec officer named Harkin. Heading to Chora's Den, the squad was ambushed by a couple of assassins, who could only have been amateurs. Once the assassins had been taken care of the squad entered the club and found Harkin, drunk at a small table. After trying to hit on Shepard to which she responded with a bit of threatening he gave up the most likely spot Garrus would go, a small med clinic run by a Dr. Michel. Washing their hands of the filth of Chora's Den and Harkin, the squad made their way to the med clinic where they ran into yet another complication.

The door to the clinic slid open to reveal Garrus crouched underneath a low wall, the reason for this was evident as Dr. Michel was being accosted by four armed thugs, who upon noticing the door sliding open took the doctor as a hostage. As one the squad pulled out their weapons.

"Let go of the Doctor." Shepard ordered. With Dr. Michel being held by their leader as a human shield, Shepard didn't have a shot on the leader that would keep Michel safe. The only thing in their favor was that they hadn't discovered Garrus yet. Even as the thought flew through her mind Garrus sprung into action, ducking around the wall he had a clear shot on the thug which he took, nailing him through the head. As the thug's body dropped, Garrus leaped forward and grabbed the doctor, pulling her behind cover as Shepard opened fire on the remaining thugs who were still staring at the dead body of their leader. They were quickly dropped by incredibly accurate and deadly bursts from Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan.

"Perfect timing Shepard, gave me a clear shot at that bastard." Garrus said helping Michel up.

"Nice shot, not sure if I could have pulled it off. Accuracy never was my strong suit." Shepard congratulated him.

"Thanks. Dr. Michel, are you hurt?"

"No I'm okay. I'm glad you came when you did though." She said running her shaking hands over her face.

"Why were they threatening you? Who do- who _did_ they work for?" Shepard asked.

"They worked for Fist. Supposed to keep me silent about the quarian."

"Quarian? What quarian?" Garrus asked sharply.

"A quarian came by, injured, said she had information and wanted to exchange the information with the Shadow Broker. I sent her to Fist as he's the only broker agent I know of."

"Not anymore, he works for Saren now." Garrus informed us.

"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him." Michel commented.

"Well, when have criminals been smart?" Ashley asked rhetorically.

"It looks like we are heading to Chora's Den again. This time to get Fist." Ashley said.

"Wait commander! Let me join you!" Garrus said hurriedly.

"You want to join us?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, I want to bring down Saren as much as you do."

"What about your job?"

"It's not a problem. I'd rather help you at the moment."

Shepard hesitated evaluating Garrus for a moment before shaking his hand "Welcome aboard then Garrus." Shepard shook his hand.

"Thanks Commander. I heard that there is a krogan who has a deal to settle with Fist, maybe we could use him."

"Good idea, Garrus, the extra muscle would definitely help, any idea where he is?" Shepard asked him.

"Probably at C-Sec headquarters, I heard that some officers were going to bring him in for questioning."

"Then that's where we're headed. Lets move!"

Leaving Michel safely in her clinic, the squad headed to C-Sec headquarters where they easily found the krogan by following the sounds of an angry krogan. C-Sec was warning him to stay away from Chora's den, but the krogan was unimpressed by the human officer and brushed him off as he noticed Shepard standing nearby. Walking up to her he scrutinized her before saying "I recognize you. You're Shepard. I've heard a lot about you. Name's Wrex."

Shepard crossed her arms as she regarded the large krogan "Have you now?"

Wrex snorted "Of course. You survived a thresher maw attack on Akuze. That takes a quad."

"Well I'm glad to hear that. Anyway, I heard you wanted to kill Fist. We need to question him. You interested in joining us?"

"I've been hired to kill Fist yes. My people have a saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Shepard shook Wrex's hand "Glad to hear it." After introducing the rest of the squad to Wrex the now five man squad made their way back to Chora's Den where they planned their assault. Garrus would hack the door after which Wrex would charge through. Shepard would enter right after him after which they would split up. Wrex would go right around the cicular bar while Shepard went left. Shepard would be followed by Kaidan with Ashley following Wrex. Garrus would enter last and provide sniper support.

The plan executed perfectly and the entire room was cleared in less than a minute. Moving on they found a couple of workers who looked like they never held a gun in their life. After a little bit of convincing they decided they were better off leaving the heavily armed squad alone and left. That left one final room with Fist himself. As the squad entered the room they heard Fist complaining.

"Why do I have to do everything my self? It's time to die little soldiers!"Two turrets popped up out of the floor on either side of the room and started spewing shots at the squad forcing them down into cover.

"Garrus! Kaidan! Overload!" Shepard shouted and they both hit the two turrets with an overload bringing down their shields. "Focus fire! Get that turret down!" Shepard ordered gesturing towards the left turret "I got this one!" She pulled out a grenade from her armor and threw it, infusing it with biotic power as it left her hand while shouting "Fire in the hole!" the grenade flew through the air, glowing with biotic energy and detonated right on the turret. The blue tinged explosion was rather small, but blew the turret into dust.

"What the-" Fist's surprised exclamation was cut short by Shepard, whose next shot broke through his shields and hit him in the leg. "Ahhh!" He screamed in pain as the squad got out of cover and walked up to him. "Alright don't kill me! I surrender!" he shouted finally noticing the squad walking up to him.

"Tell me where the quarian is and I won't have to shoot you in the kneecaps." Shepard threatened, pulling out her pistol and aiming it for his knees.

"She's not here. I don't know of any quarian!" Fist tried bluffing.

"Who said that the quarian was a she? Looks like you need some help remembering." Shepard said dispassionately. "Put a round in his leg. Maybe that will help him remember."

"With pleasure." Wrex said pulling out a pistol that looked like a toy in his huge hands.

"Alright! Alright! I don't know where she is but I know where you can find her! She said that she would only deal with the Shadow Broker himself." Fist shouted in panic.

"No one meets the Shadow Broker in person. Even I was hired through an agent." Wrex growled.

"Exactly. No one meets the Shadow Broker. And it won't be the Broker's men that will be meeting her. Instead it will be Saren's. You're too late little soldiers." Fist said smugly.

"Is that so? Well tell me where that meeting is or I'll let Wrex rip you in half!" Shepard growled angrily.

"Here on the wards! The back ally by the markets! She's supposed to be meeting them right now." Fist panicked.

"Good. Now-" She was cut off by a shotgun blast that caused Fist's head to explode. She looked at Fist's now headless body with a raised eyebrow before saying "Could you warn me next time you're about to shoot someones head off Wrex? I want to be able to look away. Anyway we need to get over there. Garrus do you know where it is?"

"I do commander. I can take you there."

"Well what are we waiting for? Go!" Shepard ordered and the squad ran out of the room following Garrus. As they entered the main room of Chora's Den they found more thugs waiting for them, but they were quickly mowed down by the squad as they rushed through the building to where the meeting was taking place. They arrived just in time to see the quarian throw a grenade at two salarians and throw herself behind some cover. The two salarians were thrown off their feet while a turian drew his assault rifle. He however barely had time to bring his assault rifle up when he was riddled with bullets. Shepard moved down to where the two salarians were trying to get up and draw their weapons when she executed both of them with shots to the head.

"Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" The quarian shouted.

"Then why did you go to him?" Wrex asked.

"Wrex." Shepard warned before turning to the quarian "Don't worry about Fist."

"Then I suppose there are two things to thank you for. Who are you?" She asked.

"My name's Shepard. I'm looking for evidence to prove that Saren is a traitor and I heard that you might have some." Shepard introduced herself.

"Then I can repay you for saving my life. But we should go somewhere safe."

"We can take you to the human embassies, you will be safe there miss..." Shepard trailed off.

"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali introduced herself.

"Very well miss Zorah. If you would follow me we can get you to safety."

Half an hour later found them walking into Ambassador Udina's office to an irate tirade "You're not making my life easy Shepard. Firefights on the wards, an all out assault on Chora's Den do you have any idea-" He broke off as he saw the new additions to Shepard's squad. "Shepard? Who's this?"

"This is the answer to our little evidence problem Ambassador. I would have told you earlier but you didn't give me the chance." Shepard told him.

"My apologies Shepard. This entire situation has me on edge." Udina apologized. "Now lets see this evidence."

The evidence which turned out to be an audio log of Saren and an unknown woman showing their hand in the Eden Prime attack. With said audio log Tali asked to join Shepard's squad. Shepard however, was rather hesitant in letting her join as she was very young but after some convincing she agreed to let Tali join. The now six man squad left the embassies to get a drink at Flux while waiting for CryNet to finish getting their own evidence. However as they walked into C-Sec headquarters they noticed that there was a big commotion going on.

"Hey, Whats going on?" Shepard asked a passing turian officer, "What's all the commotion about."

"There's a hostage situation in a bank on Zakara ward. We're getting everyone we can over there." He told her.

"Where is it? I can help."

"CryNet is sending an inquisitor team but I suppose we could use all the help we can get. I'll send the coordinates to your nav-point."

The squad quickly headed to the coordinates given to them, taking two cabs due to their number. Upon arriving they were accosted by a man armored in what looked like more like a mech than armor. Almost the entire body was covered in metal plating, the parts that weren't covered showed a dark grey material that Shepard immediately recognized as being similar to the Nanosuit. The helmet looked rather small compared to the rest of the body but was very intimidating. Two slits on either side of the face covered the eyes of the wearer with small bright blue lights giving the appearance of four eyes. Two plates came down from the back of the head to cover the cheeks and mouth. The man in front of them looked very intimidating even as he towered over them, the armor no doubt giving him a height advantage.

"Well well well. Look what we have here." The man said looking over the squad.

Almost his entire body was covered in black and blue metal plating, the parts that weren't covered showed a dark grey material that Shepard immediately recognized as being similar to the Nanosuit. A blue CryNet logo was stamped on his left shoulder, while 'Riker' was stamped in blue on his right shoulder. The helmet looked rather small compared to the rest of the body but was very intimidating. Two slits on either side of the face covered the eyes of the wearer with small bright blue lights giving the appearance of four eyes. Two plates came down from the back of the head to cover the cheeks and mouth. The man in front of them looked very intimidating even as he towered over them, the armor no doubt giving him a height advantage.

"Commander Shepard. What a surprise." At that he pulled off his helmet to show a dark skinned man looking at them, his head now almost ridiculously small compared to the armor he was wearing. "Name's Parchman, team leader of Inquisitor team Riker. It's nice to meet you." Parchman reached out and shook Shepards hand. She could feel the controlled strength in his grip as they shook hands.

"Inquisitor team? What are you doing here?" Ashley asked.

"CryNet usually has at least one Inquisitor team stationed on the Citadel to help with situations such as this." Garrus told her.

"Indeed! There are so many idiots who think they can go up against us." Another Inquisitor said walking up to join them. This Inquisitor had black and red armor, the CryNet logo and 'Riker" on his shoulders also in red.

"Alcatraz!" Garrus greeted him.

"Garrus. Seen any homicidal elcor ambassadors recently?"

"Homicidal elcor ambassadors?" Kaidan asked confused.

"It was a couple of years back. There was this serial killer who turned out to be an elcor ambassador. The Rikers helped me take him out." Garrus explained.

"I see." Shepard said turning back to Parchman "What's the situation?"

"It's a bank robbery gone wrong. We have a bunch of hostiles in the building. C-Sec is trying to negotiate with them, but they are stuck going through the typical playbook. Meanwhile we got a Phantom in there and he's scouting out the area. He'll give us the all clear. That's when we go in. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show Commander."

"I'd rather not relax Parchman. I'd rather be in there." Shepard protested.

"I can understand that Commander. But the thing is we already have a plan, one that should eliminate all hostiles and get the hostages out as fast and safely as possible. We've trained and work together quite extensively for these situations. We have not trained with you, and your presence would throw that training out the airlock." Parchman explained.

Shepard sighed seeing the reasoning "I understand. I don't like it, but I understand."

"Commander!" Ashley protested.

"Enough Ashley. He's right. We would just be a hindrance to them." Shepard told her.

"Here, I'll patch you into our armor links. You should be able to hear everything and see everything from our helmet cams." Parchman said.

"Alright thanks. When are you going in?" Shepard asked.

"As soon as we get the go from-"

"_Rikers, data has been uploaded.__ Go in one minute."_ A voice was heard over the radio, a voice that Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan recognized.

"Copy that Wraith. Rikers, move in!" Parchman said putting his helmet back on, grabbing his assault rifle from his back, and sprinting back to where four other Inquisitors were waiting.

"Can't play hide and seek with us anymore!" Alcatraz grinned grabbing a shotgun, glowing blue and disappeared only to reappear at the entrance with the other inquisitors.

"Was that just Wraith?"

"Did he just teleport?"

Kaidan and Garrus looked at each other, both having asked two questions at the same time.

"I believe that's an affirmative on both accounts." Shepard said "I'm less interested in Wraith, more interested in that teleportation. I want it."

They fell silent as they heard Parchman say, "Alright Rikers. We have the plan. Let's stick to it." Shepard and her squad opened up their omni-tools to watch the plan in action, on their screens they saw the six Inquisitor helmet cameras along with another, showing Wraith's view. They also had a mini-map showing the Inquisitors, Wraith and all hostiles. Shepard noticed that the Inquisitors were clustering around a wall, where on the other side two hostiles were standing. Through their helmet cams she realized that they planned to blow through the wall, killing the two hostiles in the explosion. Shepard saw that Wraith was priming a flash bang to explode at exactly the same time as the wall breach. Wraith had cloaked and placed the flash bang in the middle of the room the Inquisitors would be breaching. That left four hostiles, two of which were in the back rooms with the other two in a side room. The two hostiles in the back room were with some more hostages and Wraith made his way there after setting up the flash bang. Wraith moved to the door and held his position there. Then, seemingly without any prompt, the plan went into action.

The breaching charge detonated. Blowing the two hostiles away, at the same time the flash bang detonated, blinding all the guards in the main room. An instant later Wraith, not even waiting for it to open, smashed his way through the door and fired two shots. Each of which found their marks in the brain of the two hostiles who fell to the ground. Even as Wraith was smashing through the door, Riker team entered the building through their newly made entrance. Picking off all the hostiles in the main room with short bursts to the head with their assault rifles. As the last hostile in the main room fell the Riker's turned and started firing into the wall and door of the side room riddling it with shots. When they stopped Alcatraz pulled out a shotgun and charged into the door smashing through it where he found the bodies of the last two hostiles.

"Clear!" the team shouted as they secured the hostages and stayed alert for the possibilities of hostiles that they missed. The entire thing lasted for less than thirty seconds.

"Well. I can see why we would've slowed them down." Kaidan said breaking the shocked silence.

"They operate as well if not better than Alliance spec ops teams." Shepard mused.

"Ha. Those weaklings hardly had a chance against them." Wrex laughed.

"We try Wrex. We try." Everyone jerked in surprise as Wraith shimmered into existence in front of them.

"Wraith! I'm disappointed. You only got two kills." Wrex told him.

"Two kills and a whole lot of blinded mercs." he responded.

"Wraith. What are you doing here? I thought you were at the CryNet base getting the data ready."

"Data is at the Prism. Just needs to be recovered. So I got bored. When the alert went out I decided to tag along."

"You were bored so you decided to go kill some bank robbers?" Tali asked incredulously.

"Well well well. Looks like you have some new additions to your squad Shep. And why yes I did. Worked out fairly well if I do say so myself miss. . ."

"Tali."

"Tali, and I don't believe that we have been introduced either." He said turning to Garrus.

"Garrus Vakarian."

"Well Garrus, Tali. I am CryNet Phantom Operative Wraith, Infiltrator extraordinaire at your service."

"And an arrogant tin man." Shepard said punching him in the shoulder.

"You wound me woman!"

"Suck it up. What kind of spec ops are you?"

"The dangerous, fast, invisible one? Which reminds me. You owe me a drink."

"Oh for-" Shepard swore. "Now is not the time!"

"Yeah your right. I couldn't drink it through my mask anyway."

"Are they always like this?" Tali asked.

"I asked the same question back on Eden Prime." Ashley muttered.

"Well we do go way back you know." Wraith said slinging an arm around Shepard.

"Yeah and each time I wonder why I keep meeting you." She retorted throwing his arm off causing him to stumble for a second before regaining his balance.

"We've known each other for what twelve years now?"

"Thirteen. And we only really saw each other when we were in such engagements like Elysium, Akuze, Torfan and most recently Eden Prime."

"Yeah well. Time flies."

"Wait, Elysium was just six years ago. Where did you meet thirteen years ago?" Kaidan asked curiously.

Wraith and Shepard looked at each other uncomfortably before Shepard responded "Its uh not important."

"Wraith! We're done here. We're heading back to base." Parchman called over from his team.

"Understood Parchman! I'll be right there!" Wraith called back before turning back to Shepard "Well Shep. Looks like I should go. I'll hopefully see you soon. I foresee a great many things in our future."

Shepard crossed her arms, "Is that so?"

"Oh yes. Lots of dead enemies, explosions, being badasses. Should be fun. We'll see you. Ta ta!" with that Wraith turned and headed to a vehicle that was waiting for him, CryNet logo displayed proudly on the nose.

"Well that was Operative Wraith. The best CryNet Phantom, and the Phantom that was with us on Eden Prime." Shepard said watching him leave.

"He's not what I expected." Tali commented.

"No, he is kind of strange. But trust me, in the field you don't want to mess with him. He is one mean SOB."

"He seemed kind of. . . Arrogant in all the times I've seen him." Kaidan said, glancing at shepard.

"Oh he is. He puts a lot of faith in the nanosuit and CryNet. I suppose his faith is warranted, that tin suit of his is great." Shepard told them.

"He is dangerous even without his suit." Wrex said.

"How do you know? Have you seen him outside of it?" Kaidan asked.

"No, but I can tell. He uses the suit to augment his power, but he doesn't use it as a crutch. When you get to be as old as me you get to be able to tell these things." Wrex responded.

"Reminds me. You've met him before?" Shepard asked him.

"Met him a couple years back. Was hired to wreck some havoc on a mercenary base. Turns out Wraith was investigating the base at the time. Halfway through the assault he pops up beside me and tells me that the attack helped him get his intel. He said since we helped him he would help us. Guy has a quad that's for sure."

"I see. Well I think we should all head to Flux. Get some drinks. Just don't tell Wraith. I don't want him to decide he wants his drinks now anyway." Shepard smirked.

Two hours and a few drinks later

Shepard had gone without any drinks knowing that at any time the call might come in for her to report to the Council chambers when CryNet recovered its data. This precaution proved warranted when Anderson called ordering her to the Citadel tower for the end of Saren's hearing. Looking over her squad she noticed that everyone was too drunk to be of any use. Upon telling her squad about the summons she told them that she would be going there by herself, leaving them at Flux until she returned. Catching a cab she was at the Council chambers within five minutes where she once again met Anderson at the bottom of the stairs. Together the came into hearing distance of the council where they walked in just as the Director finished speaking "-is the feed we received from operative Wraith."

Shepard got into view distance just as the data feed started playing on a holographic projector in the middle of the room. Saren and the Director were both on opposite sides of the council once again. Shepard focused her attention on the data, which showed massive amounts of data coming from Wraith's suit. In the center it had the video feed, on the sides of the video it showed lots of status updates, things Shepard couldn't even begin to understand. Shepard concentrated on the video when she heard Wraith's voice fill the room: _"Right, Shepard. I'll head on and scout out the space port. You can see if anyone is in there and then meet up with me later." _

"_Alright. Get over there and stay in radio contact."_

"_Aye aye Commander."_

Everyone watched as the video turned and moved along the path. They watched as Wraith stopped as the spaceport came into view. The view of the spaceport suddenly zoomed in on the spaceport where Saren was standing. At that time the feed paused and the Director commented on it "As you can see, we see Saren there right now, on Eden Prime. A place where he was not supposed to be. But let us continue." The video continued as Nihilus came out of cover and started talking to Saren. Shepard heard SECOND ID Saren. A few seconds later Shepard heard Wraith muttering to himself. _"Why would Saren be here now? The council wouldn't send another Spectre_ _for a simple recovery mission."_

Almost immediately Shepard heard the synthetic voice of SECOND speak up _**"Intercepted **__**enemy transmission decryption complete. Transmission intercepted five minutes prior:"**_

"_Keep the Alliance squad from reaching the beacon. I will deal with Nihlus." _

A great gasp traveled through the room as people realized what they had heard.

"_**Positive voice recognition on Saren Arterius."**_

Almost immediately after Shepard noticed a icon pop up to the side of the video, it showed that Wraith was attempting to open a comm channel to Nihlus, no doubt attempting to warn him, when suddenly, multiple warnings started flashing. Shepard heard Wraith gasp in pain and fall to his knees.

"_**Warning. Hostile threat attempting to seize control. Engaging safety protocols."**_

Shepard watched as Wraith was able to look up just in time to see Saren shoot Nihlus in the back of the head. Another gasp traveled through the room as people finally were confronted with undeniable proof of Saren's betrayal.

"_**Rerouting systems. . ."**_

"Thank you Director. I believe that that is all we need to see." Tevos interrupted the feed.

"Certainly Councilor. You may examine the feed closer if you wish."

"Councilors! We have more evidence!" Udina chose to speak up.

"Ambassador? More evidence? The evidence submitted by CryNet is very condemning." Valern said.

"Indeed councilors. We have an audio file, recovered from a deactivated geth." Udina told them before playing the file.

_"Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." _Saren from the recording said.

"_And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."_ The unknown woman stated.

Sparatus sighed and said "The evidence submitted by CryNet and Ambassador Udina is irrefutable. Saren Arterius," He said turning to Saren's hologram "We strip you of your Spectre status. You are to return to the Citadel to face justice for your crimes."

Saren growled at these words "You will regret this decision, Councilors," before disappearing.

"I believe its safe to say that Saren will not be turning himself in." The Director stated.

"I suppose so. Still I recognize the second voice in the recording. The one mentioning 'Reapers'." Tevos said, "Matriarch Benezia."

"It appears that she is in league with Saren." Shepard said.

"Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic with many followers. She will be a formidable ally to Saren and his geth." Tevos concluded.

"I'm more interested in the Reapers. What do you know about them?" Valern asked.

"Only what was extracted from the geth's memory core." Anderson answered "The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished."

"The geth consider Reapers to be their gods and Saren the prophet for their return." Shepard continued.

"We believe the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren is searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden prime." Anderson finished.

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" Valern asked.

"Saren thinks it can bring back the reapers. That's bad enough." Shepard responded.

"Listen to what you're saying. Saren want's to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy?" Sparatus asked dubiously "Impossible. It has to be! Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we have found no trace of their existence? If they were real we would have found something." He concluded.

"Not necessarily Councilor. The Reapers could have hidden or destroyed all that information when they left. The fact of the matter is, the Reapers represent a clear threat to the galaxy. Something must be done!" The Director countered.

"The Reapers are obviously just a myth director. A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will." Valern said dismissively.

"Are you willing to bet the galaxy on that councilor? Remember all legends are based off of some modicum of reality." The Director told him crossing his arms. "The fate of the galaxy may be at stake here. If Saren finds the Conduit and the legends prove to be true, then we will no doubt be wiped out."

"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights and resources of a Spectre. We have stripped him of his position." Sparatus said.

"That is not good enough! You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse. Send your fleet in!" Udina demanded.

"A fleet cannot track down one man." Valern told him.

"A Citadel fleet could secure the entire region. Keep the geth from attacking any more of our colonies!" Udina explained.

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus systems! We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies." Sparatus dismissed Udina's explanation.

"Excuse me councilor? Did I hear that correctly?" The Director jumped in "You plan on leaving dozens of human colonies to the mercy of the geth without doing nothing? You plan on turning your backs on one of the races that are under your protection?"

"I am sure that that is not what Councilor Speratus meant. We simply cannot risk a galactic war at this time, not that we would do nothing." Tevos responded "There however is another option available. One that does not require fleets or armies."

"No! It's too-" Sparatus broke off when Tevos glared at him.

"Commander Shepard, step forward." Tevos said returning her gaze on Shepard.

Shepard swallowed, glancing up at the Director who gave her an almost imperceptible nod and smile, before stepping forward, past Anderson and Udina.

Tevos began the ceremony, "It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." Valern picked up.

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will." Tevos continued.

Sparatus continued, "Spectres bear a great burden. They are the protectors of the galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

"You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species." Tevos finished.

"I'm honored Councilors."

"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren Arterius. He's a fugitive from justice so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him." Valern gave Shepard her orders.

"I'll find him." Shepard said confidently.

"Director Duncan. I assume we can count on CryNet's support?" Tevos asked turning to the hologram.

"Of course councilors. A CryNet Phantom will be assigned to Shepard and CryNet will assist in any way we can." The Director nodded his head.

"This meeting is adjourned." Tevos finished the meeting and the Director disappeared from view.

After congratulations from Anderson, Udina immediately started working on the logistics necessary. Shepard decided to head down to the C-Sec academy to get new equipment. On the way she called her squad and asked them if they would join her. No one hesitated in agreeing.

Making a short stop at the spectre requisitions office Shepard bought a CryTech Armories Marshall, a fairly slow firing speed and high heat generating shotgun that did quite a bit of damage per shot. Armed with her new shotgun she joined up with her squad at the Normandy where Captain Anderson told her that he was stepping down in order for Shepard to become its CO.After a bit of convincing Shepard took the position.

Anderson and Udina then told her that the only lead they had was that Matriarch Benezia's daughter, Liara T'soni was in a Prothean dig site on Therum. It was unknown if Dr. T'Soni was working with her mother but she was a Prothean expert regardless and could even possibly help Shepard make sense of her vision. Deciding that barring any other complications Shepard would head there after final preparations were completed which was estimated to take six hours.

It was then that Wraith contacted her "Hey Shep."

"Wraith, quite the thing you pulled off there."

"I thought so, anyway can't go into much detail about that particular event, this is an unsecured channel. As it is I need to do a systems check on my suit. I have to make sure that Eden Prime didn't fuck anything up."

Shepard nodded to herself "Right, I need to finalize preparations here as well. I suspect that that will take about six hours. After that we're probably heading to Therum, unless anything else gets in the way."

"Alright, so I'll meet you there, or wherever you are when I'm done checking my suit. I have to head over to Noveria as its the closest place with the necessary equipment to do a full systems check. That scan could easily take quite some time so I'll meet up with you after I'm done."

"Alright Wraith. I'll see you then."

"Roger. Wraith out."

_A/N: Well there you go. Shepard is a Spectre and CryNet brought forth some new evidence unlike in the previous version where Wraith brought the same evidence as Shepard. Kinda made Shepard useless. _

_Also, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do so, I'm going to try and post regular updates there. You can find me LEGION001. I'll try to be posting updates on NE but there will probably also be other gaming related tweets there as well._

_Speaking of which, Planetside 2 has launched and I find my time being sucked away by that and Assassin's Creed 3 as well. I'd definitely recommend Planetside 2 even if it is in a rather buggy state at the moment. Here's hoping that they will fix that soon._

_Anyway, I'd say read and review but if you're reading this chances are that you already read it. As for reviews, while getting reviews that say "Nice chapter" is great, they don't really help me get better. So constructive criticism is welcomed!_

_Until the eighth of December!_

_~LEGION _


	5. Chapter 5: Raven Team

_Disclaimer: Again, I don't own Crysis or Mass Effect. _

**Raven Team**

Wraith POV, a few minutes before

I smirked as my connection to the Council closed. Sparatus's racist comment had made it quite a bit easier to get Shepard into the Spectres. Everything was going perfectly. As I put my nanosuit back on I knew that I had to go have it checked. Eden Prime might have damaged something and a malfunction in the suit could mean the difference between life and death. As such I had to get to a facility to do a in depth scan of the suit as the suit didn't have the ability to do such a scan by itself.

Luckily the CryTech facilities on Noveria had such a cradle and was merely a single mass relay jump. I planned to go there, get the suit checked out and meet up with Shepard after. Getting there I would take the _CryNet Space Vehicle (CSV) Origin Stealth Insertion Vessel (SIV class)_, ship of Raven Team, my CryNet Phantom team, to Noveria since they were docked at the Citadel, originally to pick me up after the Eden Prime mission. While they would still be picking me up it would only be temporary.

I called Shepard and told her of my plans as I made my way to the _Origin's_ docking bay, she informed me that the Normandy would leave the Citadel in six hours. Taking into account travel time and the suit diagnostic, I would be able to meet up with her an hour or two after the Normandy arrived in the Artemis Tau cluster.

As the call ended, the elevator opened granting me a view of the Origin – I smiled at seeing the ship. Unlike what most thought, the Normandy was not the first stealth ship to be developed. CryNet had created multiple stealth ships in the last few years, the Origin of which was the first. The Normandy may be the first stealth reconnaissance vessel to be flown by a recognized military power, the Origin was of a completely different class. Rather it was designed for stealthed insertion and infiltration.

Every Phantom team has a designated SIV and Origin was Raven team's ship. Based off the old SR-71 Blackbirds used in the 20th century the SIV class ships had the same form of the SR-71 however were the size of a heavy frigate. With the best stealth equipment, which included thermal shielding similar to the IES systems on the Normandy as well as visual cloaking, made the SIV almost impossible to detect with any sensors. Visual, thermal and LADAR scans were all fooled by the SIV's stealth systems. However, the stealth systems can't run for as long as the Normandy, leading for the SIV's role of quick infiltrations, rather than prolonged stealth.

Deck one holds the bridge, monitoring stations for the stealth and sensor suits, the CIC, the armory, Cradle engineering and the top deck of engineering. Deck two has the med-bay, mess hall, sleeper pods, the lower engineering deck and the quarters for its crew and Raven team members. The third deck is the cargo hold.

Then there was Raven team. Raven team was one the first CryOps Phantom team created and is, as of yet, one of the best teams. A team of eight, Raven team has multiple specialists. Every one of us has a unique insignia on our shouldersincorporating a Raven in some way. My insignia, for instance, was a ghostly raven infront of a large star.

Viper is my second in command and loves his hit and run tactics. Something that we often try to outdo each other in. Viper was fairly tall with short black hair and black eyes. He was born 2148 in London as James Green to his Alliance parents. In 2166 he joined the Alliance and was accepted four years later in the Interplanetary Combatives Academy (ICA), where he trained in infiltration and espionage. James received his N6 designation after two years of intense training. In 2173, James took part in a raid against pirate forces and received his N7 designation for his actions in the raid. James participated in multiple operations until 2175 when an operation of his went south due to bureaucratic red tape. I just happened to be looking for potential recruits for the new Phantom project when his name came up. James accepted our offer soon after we made it and he went into Phantom training in 2176 with three other phantoms. Viper fittingly chose a Viper coiled around a raven as his insignia.

Typhoon is our heavy weapons specialist and he just loves charging headfirst into the enemy ranks with heavy weapons. Typhoon is of fairly average height with piercing blue eyes with black hair. Typhoon was born in 2152 in southern Germany. Named Felix Faber he joined the alliance when he turned 18. There he became a very competent heavy weapons specialist. In 2173 he was transferred to the same unit as Alex Hunter, who would later be known as as Jackal. He formed a strong friendship with Alex and when CryNet approached both of them on becoming candidates for the Phantoms he accepted. A Raven flying above a typhoon was Typhoon's choice of insignia.

Alex Hunter, now with the codename Jackal, is our assault specialist. He is slightly taller than average with blue-green eyes and light sandy hair. He was born as a spacer to alliance parents in 2150. Following in his parents footsteps he joined the alliance when he turned 18. His prowess led to him being invited to the ICA after only two years of service. Two years later he graduated the ICA with an N4 designation and was assigned, one year later, in 2173 to the same unit as the then Felix Faber. Here he formed a strong friendship with Felix and when CryNet approached both of them in 2176 he accepted along with Felix. Jackal's choice of insignia was a raven standing atop a growling jackal.

Nova is our demolitions expert. If you want something destroyed or blown up you go to her. Nova is pretty average in height with blond hair and green eyes. My relationship with Nova is a special one as I found her on the streets of Terra Nova in 2178 when she was 16. When I first met her she was running away from another gang, apparently having just blown up one of their buildings with an improvised explosive. Rescuing her from the gang she introduced herself as Nova Terra, saying she doesn't remember her parents or her real name. I was immediately able to see her potential to do some good in the galaxy and offered to train her as a Phantom. Nova immediately accepted saying that she didn't have anything to stay on Terra Nova for. During the trip to the Prism she told me about herself, telling me that she made her first explosive with 15 and was conducting a one woman war on the gang I saved her from. I was very impressed with her tales if a little doubtful. Those doubts were however laid to rest when I saw her training. She excelled in the Phantom training and I even began to train her myself when I had the time. When she graduated training she was very proficient in many different weapons but she never lost her love for explosives. This love for explosions lead to her insignia being a raven atop a large explosion.

Tigress,or as we call her, _The_ Tigress, is our medic. She takes our well being very seriously. If one of us is hurt she first patches us up, then goes and tears the person responsible to pieces. Tigress is shorter than average with dark blonde hair and brown eyes. She was born in Lowell city on mars in 2147 and when she was 19 joined the alliance as a combat medic. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming one of the best combat medics and catching CryNet's eye. In 2176 she joined CryNet to become a Phantom, choosing a Raven riding atop a Tigress infront of a medical cross.

Our last two teammates are our sniping team, Kestrel and Bolt. Kestrel and Bolt are like two siblings, having been friends since they were young. They were both born in 2151 on demeter and grew up together. When the became 18 they left Demeter to travel the galaxy and three years later in 2172 they had become assassins, both crack shots with any sniper rifle. CryNet tracked them down in 2176 with a proposal to become Phantoms. Seeing that they could become phantoms and use their skills do to good in the galaxy they accepted. Kestrel is the tallest of the entire team, standing at 2m tall, with dark skin, brown eyes and black hair. His insignia has a raven and kestrel locked in an aerial dance. Bolt is also fairly tall, with pale skin, brown eyes and black hair. A raven gripping a lightning bolt in his talons is Bolt's insignia.

As I entered the Origin I was greeted by Viper. "Hey boss. It's good to see you." He welcomed me.

"Viper. Good to see you too." I responded smiling. As the airlock doors closed I took off my mask. Raven team were some of the few who knew I was also the Director. "Tell Mark to get to Noveria ASAP. I need to make sure Eden Prime didn't fuck up my suit too much, then I'm going to join Shepard and hunt down Saren." I said mentioning our pilot.

"Good good." Viper replied,"And what will we do?"

"You will be doing any missions that CARLA assigns to you or helping me and Shepard out." I said.

"Very well. We will be on standby, waiting for further orders." Viper confirmed as we approached the armory.

"Tell the rest of the team that we will be arriving at Noveria half an hour." I said

"Will do Wraith." Viper said.

As I entered the armory, Typhoon greeted me "Wraith!"

"Typhoon. How's it going?." I asked in reply.

"Not bad Wraith. Heard about Eden Prime though."

"Yeah, it was rough. Something fucked with my suit and tried to take it over. We're heading to Noveria to make sure nothing is lasting. After that I'll be leaving you guys to hunt Saren with Shepard."

"You got it. I'll get all your gear packed up. It's a pity though. Why do you get to shoot stuff up while we are stuck out here?" Typhoon asked me.

"Come now Typhoon. I know that you like action but you can't have everything in the world." I smirked. "Besides I might call you guys in for some help every once in a while."

"Sure. Probably you will call us in for the suicide missions while you get all the fun stuff." Typhoon grumbled.

"Aren't the suicide missions the fun ones? I asked pretending to be confused.

"Bah, you know what I mean Wraith." He scoffed.

"Indeed I do Typhoon." I said. "Right, if you could get my gear ready for transfer, then I should go. Check on the rest of the team."

"Right boss," was Typhoons response as I left the armory and made for the bridge. I arrived just in time to see us go through the relay and come out in the Horse Head Nebula.

"Hey Wraith. I suppose you want me to dock at the CryTech base?" Mark asked me as I arrived. Mark was our designated pilot. A fairly skilled pilot he had joined the alliance at a young age until he got grounded for disobeying orders to extract a ground team that had been left to die. He joined CryNet of is own accord and was assigned to the _Origin _upon its construction.

"You know it. Gotta make sure this suit isn't too fucked up." I told him.

"You know I hate dealing with Noveria. Those bastards think their so special." Mark complained.

"Well they know not to mess with us." I smirked.

"Yeah, yeah. ETA ten minutes."

"Good, good. You know, the pilot of the Normandy was something else." I told him.

"Yeah? Who was it. Someone I know?"

"He went by Joker."

"Wow... They really pulled out the best for that mission didn't they?" He asked rhetorically.

"They sure did."

"Yeah I remember Joker. Went to flight school with him. He worked his ass off there. Has Vrolik syndrome, but trust me, he earned all the stuff he's been awarded with. No charity going on there. Then he got the name 'Joker' from an instructor because he never smiled. It's stuck with him ever since. Kinda interesting really. Anyway I should deal with those bastards down there. You can get ready to depart Wraith."

"Gotcha Mark. I'll see you later no doubt. Get some rest. We'll be leaving right after I get my suit checked."

"I'll be here."

I turned and headed to the airlock as I waited for Mark to dock us. I didn't have to wait long before I could leave. I was met an engineering team who led me to a lab where a high powered Cradle was waiting. Sitting down in it they began a complete scan of the suit. As the outer scans detected nothing abnormal the techs began a deep layer scan. The scan would go down into the deepest parts of the suit to make sure absolutely nothing was wrong. Of course one problem was that no one knew everything about the suit and how it worked, so we had to study every difference to see if it would be a problem or a benefit to the suit.During the deep layer scan the techs came across one such thing as a new deep layer protocol had been started that seemed to be the start of a counter to something called 'Neural Defense.' It was determined that this protocol was completely harmless, but would require more work by the nanosuit to create its counter. Right now the techs couldn't understand exactly what the nanosuit was doing, so they decided to let it do its thing.

After six hours of scanning and testing, the nanosuit was given the green light and I could finally leave. Half an hour later found me on the Origin once more heading to the Artemis Tau Cluster where Shepard was apparently heading to investigate the planet Edolus for a missing Alliance marine unit.

We arrived in the Sparta System an hour later to find the Normandy pulling into orbit around Edolus. Scans showed that it had just dropped a Mako on the surface of the planet, along with a distress beacon. Mark started reading off data from his scans.

"The distress beacon on Edolus is automated and without a message. It seems that the Normandy's Mako is heading straight for the beacon itself and will arrive there soon. Wait. Penetrating scans are detecting multiple thresher maws in the vicinity! They're in danger!"

"Fuck!" I swore. "Raven Squad! We have multiple Thresher Maw's on the planet surface! Shepard is running straight into a Thresher nest. Prepare for insertion. Mark get us down there, now." I ordered.

"Yes sir!" Mark replied.

"Raven squad to the cargo bay." I ordered.

I turned and nearly sprinted towards the elevator where I was joined by Jackal and Typhoon coming out of the Armory.

"Wow boss. Multiple thresher maws?" Typhoon asked me incredulously.

"We haven't faced a maw yet outside of Valhalla." Jackal added.

"I know. But don't worry. We can do this."

As the elevator arrived on deck two we were joined by Tigress, Nova, Viper, Kestrel and Bolt.

"You know Wraith this was a rather short notice," Viper quipped "I prefer a bit more warning when having to face giant sand worms."

"Sorry team but this was a big surprise." I apologized as the elevator doors opened on the cargo deck. "Alright, sync up squad."

"_**Synchronizing with Raven Squad. **_

_**Viper Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Typhoon Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Nova Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Jackal Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Kestrel Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Bolt Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Tigress Synchronization Complete.**_

_**Raven Squad Synchronization Complete."**_

"Alright squad. SECOND bring up the tactical map."

SECOND brought up a map of the area around the distress beacon showing Shepard's Mako and the direction the two thresher maws were coming from.

"Alright, this will be a HALOM insertion and we are spliting up on the way down. Kestrel and Bolt, you will drop on this southern hill. From there you should have a good vantage point to engage the Maw's with Penetrator rounds. They should be able to pierce their armor. The rest of us will land and spread out over this area here." I ordered, the different locations being marked as I mentioned them. "Take armor piercing and heavy weapons, but be fast on your feet. Thresher maws can take a lot of punishment and can come up from below with little warning."

"Sounds good." Viper said. "You guys agree with that?"

Various agreements came from the different Team members.

"Alright. Mark, you got the landing zones?" I asked.

"Yeah I got them. ETA five minutes."

"Got it." I said "Alright team. Grab your HALOMs, we are going in." The HALOM (High Altitude Low Mass) Units use mass lowering fields that on the user allowing for lighter landings. They were developed by Alpha Tech and Science to allow for high altitude drops in a nanosuit and later GHOST armor. Essentially it's a backpack that contains a small mass effect core and enough power for one drop, after which it had to be recharged. The eight of us moved quickly as we each grabbed a HALOM, strapping them on.

HALOMs secured, we walked to the cargo bay door as it opened giving us a view of Edolus. Large deserts broken only by a few rock formations greeted us. In the distance I could see meteors burning up in the atmosphere.

"Alright guys and girls." Mark broke the relative silence between us, "We are approaching the drop zone. On green Kestrel and Bolt will jump, followed by the rest of you." I glanced at the red light to the side of the door, waiting for it to turn color. The moment it did Kestrel ran out of the Origin followed closely by Bolt. Typhoon ran out next, Jackal close behind. Nova and Tigress jumped out leaving only me and Viper. I motioned for Viper to jump out and once he did I took a running leap out of the Origin.

Upon jumping out, I tucked my arms to my sides and fell headfirst down towards the planet. A typical HALOM drop was performed at an altitude of 40km up and consisted of multiple stages. The first stage would be at such a height that air resistance was negligible and I would continue accelerating until the air resistance would grow large enough to start slowing me down. I would then start slowing down until I reached a constant speed at which I would fall until the HALOM activated during the last five seconds and slow me down allowing for a relatively soft landing.

I had fallen for fifty three seconds when I started slowing down and entered the second phase of the drop. It would take another sixty two seconds for me to reach the constant speed that I would be falling at for just over three minutes until the HALOM would activate.

Not even thirty seconds until the HALOM would activate did SECOND speak up:

"_**Comm channel opened"**_

I glanced at my HUD to see that it was Shepard calling me. "Hey Shep." I said keeping my eye on the timer until the next phase of the fall.

"Wraith, what the hell is going on here?" Shepard asked me without preamble, a little static from the drop interfering with the call.

"Oh you know. You're heading into a thresher maw nest. Figured you could use a hand."

Shepard was silent for a few moments in which time I extended my arms and legs to slow my fall.

"A thresher maw nest..." She repeated finally "Right. Well thanks then."

"Don't thank me yet. We haven't started yet." I told her as I felt the Mass Effect field kick in slowing my fall as it lowered my mass.

"What's with the static?" Shepard asked as the static grew somewhat.

"Oh you know. Performing high altitude drops can mess with comms somewhat." I told her as I spun righting myself to allow me to land feet first on the ground.

"_**Maximum armor." **_

WHAM! Since the HALOM had lowered my mass and speed the suit was easily able to absorb the fall.

"Did you just jump out of your ship?" Shepard asked me calmly, I could almost hear her eyebrow raising over the comms.

"Yep just landed. Hold on a sec. This is Wraith, I am on the ground. Check in"

"Viper has landed."

"Typhoon here with Jackal, Nova and Tigress."

"Kestrel and Bolt are in position. Have eyes on the Mako."

"Alright team remember to keep moving. Those Maws will make short work of you if you stay in one spot." I said engaging power mode.

"Alright Wraith. What's the situation?" Shepard asked me.

"Two thresher maws are heading for the area by the distress beacon. Keep that tank moving and firing. Be ready for anything as they will try to burrow underneath you and disable you that way." I said starting to move towards the Beacon.

"I know what maw's do Wraith. Probably know better than you." Shepard told me testily.

"Right. Sorry bout that but-"

"_**Seismic activity detected. Thresher maw inbound." **_SECOND informed me as the two Thresher Maws unburrowed. One broke through the ground close to Shepard's Mako while the other came up near Typhoon's portion of the team.

"Here they come!" Jackal said.

"We are moving to engage!" Came Nova's voice.

"Kestrel! Bolt! Penetrator rounds! Aim for the eyes!" I called out.

"We don't have a shot! Make one turn towards us!" Bolt said.

"Do you copy Shepard?" I asked pulling my JAW (Joint Anti-Armor Weapon) from my back "Try to get your maw to turn to the south!.

"Roger that."

"You want some of this?" Nova shouted and I heard massive explosion by the maw closest to her.

"Well done Nova!" Typhoon congratulated her.

I aimed my JAW at Shepard's maw and pulled the trigger. With a loud whoosh a rocket was launched out and I kept the JAW's scope on the maw as the rocket homed in on the laser sight. It detonated, causing the maw to shudde and quickly dive underground. I looked around and saw that the other maw had disappeared underground as well.

"Keep moving! Those maw's are not gone yet!" I ordered as I engaged in power mode and kept on the move.

"Affirmative."

"Oh fuck!" "Shit!" I heard both Bolt and Kestrel swear. Spinning around to face their location I could only see two massive spurts of dirt near their location.

"KESTREL! BOLT! Report! What's your status?" I yelled panicking as I realized what I was seeing.

"This is Kestrel. We made it out of there. Quick! We can paint a target!" Kestrel responded after a few seconds.

"Phantoms! JAW's on my mark!" I shouted when I realized that their suits were transmitting targeting data. I aimed my JAW, which had chambered another rocket in the meantime, at the target shown on my HUD. After a few seconds when my HUD told me that everyone was locked on, immediately SECOND sent data to the rest of Raven team's suits ordering them to fire. I felt the suit manipulate my finger by itself to fire the JAW in unison with the rest of the team.Once again my JAW spat out another rocket which sped towards the targeted maw. As if realizing that its life was in danger the maw in question started to burrow underground again but it was too late. Six JAW rockets detonated right after each other, blowing the maw in two.

"YEAH!" "WOO!" "BLEW IT SKY HIGH!" "Alright!" The various jubilations from the phantoms crackled through my radio as the last maw burrowed down into the ground once more.

"Good job guys, but watch out. That last maw is still around." Even as I said that I felt the ground shaking underneath me. "Oh shit." I swore as the earth erupted underneath me. I was sent flying up as the maw burst out directly beneath me. Time seemed to slow down as I reached the peak of my flight. Turning in mid air as I started falling back down, the maw was preparing to catch me in its deadly jaws and I realized that while the suit could protect me from a lot of stuff, the acid of the maw's digestive tract would dissolve the suit and me like paper. I tried to maneuver myself so that I wouldn't land in its gaping Maw with no success, and just as I thought I would become monster chow a blast rocked the beast, causing it to jerk out of the way and howl in pain. This allowed me to miss its mouth by mere centimeters, slamming into the armored head just above an eye stalk. I grabbed hold of a plate to keep from being shaken off as I pulled out a CTA-33 Advanced Explosive Charge (AEC) from a pouch on my belt and threw it into the maw's still open mouth.

Releasing my grip on the plate, I slid down the worm and slammed into the ground with a sickening thud as I felt my right leg break. Grimacing in pain, I detonated the AEC. The head of the maw exploded as all the explosive energy of the AEC was contained by the maw itself. The small smirk on my face vanished as I realized that the Maw was falling directly towards me. In that moment I felt the nanosuit harden around the break in my leg allowing me to scramble to my feet and stagger as fast as I could away. I cleared the area moments before the massive worm hit the ground exactly where I had been lying. I stumbled and fell to the ground where I lay, panting in pain.

As the adrenaline wore off I could hear the voices of my team and Shepard shouting in my ear.

"WRAITH!"

"Operative Wraith report!"

"Come on boss! Report!"

"That maw fell right on top of him!"

"His suit is still transmitting!"

"Get over there NOW!"

I looked around as my vision dimmed slightly, dark edges creeping into my vision as I saw exactly what the maw had done to me. Landing on the sharp plates the maw used to burrow through the earth had made deep tears in the nanoweave. My right hand was particularly damaged because I had held onto said sharp plates. The plates had sliced through the nanoweave and into my fingers from which blood was pouring out. My leg had been locked down by the suit due to the break and me having to escape the falling maw, preventing it from being moved. Obviously my suit had injected me with painkillers because while I could still feel the pain from my wounds it wasn't as bad as it should have been. While I took in what happened to me I heard a sizzling noise. Looking around I noticed to my alarm a greenish yellow fluid forming a puddle around the corpse of the maw. The fluid was burning through the body of the maw and was slowly flowing towards me. Grunting I started dragging myself away from the acid as fast as my left arm could pull me, as my right arm was next to useless.

It was then that I heard a loud engine approach and saw the Mako drive up near me. The engine stopped and I saw an armored figure exit and sprint towards me.

"Shit! Wraith! Can you hear me?" I recognized the figure's voice as Shepard's. "Fuck, we need to get you away from this acid! Williams! Give me a hand here!" She shouted over her shoulder and soon enough a second figure joined her and they both picked me up and dragged me away from the acid. I groaned as the pain spiked at the movement. "Just hold on Wraith! You're going to be alright!" I finally blacked out as they stopped dragging me and set me on the ground.

_A/N: Welp, ended that on a cliffhanger. Please don't kill me. Next chapter will be on the 22nd, I'll have to see if I might post another on Christmas. No promises, but I may do that. _


	6. Chapter 6: The Therum Crysis: Part 1

_Disclaimer: I'm serious here, I don't own Crysis or Mass Effect. Wish I did though. . ._

_Thanks again to DN7 for his work as a beta. _

**The Therum Crysis**

**Part 1**

"_**Warning. Major user damage detected. Major lacerations detected. Major Fractures detected. Suit integrity 50%. Injecting emergency nanocells. Advanced healing engaged. Repairing systems."**_

I groaned as I slowly regained consciousness, I opened my eyes to see the Origin's medbay swim into view.

"Well well well. Look who decided to wake up."

I growled as I recognized the voice, "Shut it Nova. How long was I out?"

"Only an hour or so. I kept you sedated for the majority of the time. We only just arrived on the ship." This time it was Tigress who responded.

"So he's awake?" I looked towards the door to see Shepard walk between them. "Nice ship by the way."

"What are you doing here?" I asked surprised.

"It's good to see you too." She responded drily. "Viper invited me onboard and said that you would be up and kicking soon enough. I had my doubts, but seeing you now, I'm pretty surprised."

"What exactly happened?" I asked glancing at Tigress.

"You broke your leg in two places in the fall, and getting up and running right after didn't help matters. You sustained lacerations to your chest from the maw's plates and you almost lost your fingers on your right hand as well." Tigress looked at me exasperated "It's lucky that Shepard was able to hit the Maw with a Mako blast when she did or you would be in the stomach of a giant worm right now."

"So it was _you_ who hit it... Thanks for that Shep. I was not looking forward to be monster chow." I glanced at my hand to see that the suit had already repaired itself, no sign of the gash visible. Clenching my fist I didn't feel any pain.

"Your lacerations have already been healed, you may however feel some discomfort, but that will soon fade." Tigress answered my unasked question. "Your leg has been set and is healing nicely. Another three hours should have it completely healed but you should be able to walk around already, since the suit will be keeping it set. So I expect that you will be completely healed and combat ready within four hours."

Deciding to get the Normandy underway as quickly as possible, I went to pack up all my gear to be transported to the Normandy. Shepard decided to help me as according to her I was 'too injured to be carrying heavy loads' and that she needed me combat ready as fast as possible. Reluctantly I let her and Nova carry everything to the VTOL.

The CSV-81 VTOL (Vanguard Tactical Operations Lander) is CryNet's standard shuttle. The VTOL is outfitted with state of the art stealth systems, allowing it to covertly insert or extract Phantom or Inquisitor teams.

With all my gear aboard the VTOL, I bid the rest of my team farewell, but not before telling them to stay alert for possible missions.

During the short flight over I discussed the thresher maw attack in great detail with Shepard. I shared my suspicions of it being a trap due to the conveniently placed distress beacon right in the middle of a thresher nest. I figured that a squad under attack by a bunch of thresher maw's would not have the time to set up a distress beacon like the one we found. While relatively easy and fast to set up, being under attack from giant worms could definitely make things difficult for even the most experienced of soldiers. Shepard had to agree, knowing first hand what it was like to be running from maw's. The news that it was a trap definitely worried Shepard, making her wonder exactly how many other such traps there could be. The unasked question was obvious. 'Was Akuze also one such trap?'

Upon arriving on the Normandy I was reintroduced to the squad as Shepard explained my purpose here "Wraith will be aiding us in whatever capacity he is capable and will also be acting as a liaison between myself and CryNet. I hope this won't lead to any problems. Wraith will be situated in the office on the crew deck, past the sleeper pods."

I could see that some people weren't completely happy about her announcement but they respected and trusted Shepard enough not to argue. It was quite amazing to see the loyalty and respect Shepard had already gained from the entire crew, in just the few hours she had been in command of the Normandy.

With introductions out of the way and after learning of our new heading, I headed into my office, to make sure everything was set, from my own equipment, to CARLA being set for my absence. Three hours later I was interrupted from reading a report from Serpent team by Shepard's voice over the intercom.

"Operative Wraith please report to the briefing room."

Closing the report, I secured my office with advanced CryNet security protocols before exiting and heading up the stairs to the briefing room/comm room. Walking through the door I saw Shepard leaning up against the communications console examining a holographic display of a planet which I figured had to be Therum, the planet where Matriarch Benezia's daughter was on.

"Good, you're here." Shepard said looking up at me as the door slid closed behind me. "I wanted to go over the data we have and get a plan together with you. You know your capabilities much better than I do."

I nodded once as I turned my attention to the holo, "So what's the situation?"

Shepard activated her omni-tool and input a command, causing the holo to zoom in on a small area of Therum, with one area highlighted in red. "That is the dig site where Dr. T'soni is supposed to be. There are geth signatures all around the area however so landing the Normandy directly at the dig site is a no go. That means we have to drop in the Mako, at the closest drop zone five clicks away, here." Another spot was highlighted, this time in blue.

As I examined the entire map I noticed that while the drop zone was only two clicks away, it was more like five, as the road wound around large lava lakes until it finally reached the dig site. A single refinery was directly on the road to the dig site about a fourth of the way. There were also two tunnels that lead through the mountains directly to the dig site where there was a small canyon that the Mako might not fit through.

"Will the Mako fit through this canyon here?" I asked pointing at it.

"Unlikely. We're going to have to ditch the Mako there and continue on foot. We should be then able to clear out any weapons to allow the Normandy to pick it up while we go into the dig site itself." Shepard responded instantly.

I nodded to myself as I regarded the map. "Do we know where the largest groups of Geth are?"

"We only know that there is a large number of geth directly at the dig site and another at this refinery." Shepard responded "We also know that there is at least one drop ship in the area as well, so expect heavy resistance all along the road."

"I see. Do you already have a plan though?"

"I have one in the making yes. Can you keep up with the Mako on foot?"

"If you don't go at full speed I should be able to yes. If need be I can just hop on for a ride."

"Alright. Now do you think that you can drop in on this mountain here with your orbital drop thing?" She asked me indicating a location overlooking the refinery on the map.

"HALOM drop on that mountain? Yeah, I should be able to do that. You want me to give sniper support?" I asked.

"No. I want you to infiltrate the refinery and blow open the gates. With the gates open we can drive straight in with the Mako blasting everything as we go." As she was outlining her plan the holo changed to be a rotating model of the refinery, gates to be destroyed flashing red.

"Good plan. What kind of gates are we expecting here?" I asked having to know how much explosives to take.

"I'd expect standard compound gates. Two layers of reinforced concrete each approximately one meter thick." The holo zoomed in on the gates to show them in great detail.

"Shouldn't be a problem. A little AEC between the two layers should do the job." I said "Anything else I should know?"

"Don't think so. Everything else seems to be pretty much clear on what has to be done. Although I was doing some research on the geth combat units and we may want to watch out for Armatures and Colossus units, which are pretty much the walking tanks of the geth." Shepard told me showing me the respective models on the holo.

"Alright then. You want to tell the rest of the squad?" I asked.

"Of course." She said turning towards the communications console and speaking into it "Attention ground team, please report to the briefing room. I repeat ground team report to the briefing room."

Turning I sat down in a chair next to the door to await the rest of the squad to file in while Shepard leaned back against the communications console. When everyone had taken their seats Shepard started the briefing by outlining the objectives, proceeding into the plan and finishing with saying, "I'll be taking Wrex and Garrus on this op. The rest of you I want suited up and standing by. Any questions?" She asked, waiting for a moment then continuing when no questions came. "I want all of you in the cargo bay within the next half hour. Dismissed."

I stood up amidst a flurry of activity and headed out the door to get my gear from my office. Arriving in my office I opened my equipment locker and pulled out everything I would need. First I strapped on a utility vest followed by the HALOM onto my back and connected it to the Nanosuit. The AEC's went into a pouch on my waist. Taking the ammunition block out of my SCAR I found that it would be fine for a few more missions and slid it back in. Pulling out a grenade launcher attachment, I slid it into the under slung rail and locked it into place. Done with my SCAR, I attached it to my back. The ammo block of my DSG-1 was also satisfactory and I slid it back into place before pulling out a box of specialized ammunition that went into a pouch on my vest. My Nova pistol went on my right hip while I attached my dagger to my left thigh. After grabbing a couple of frag grenades I attached my JAW horizontally across my lower back. Lastly I linked my weapons with my suit for targeting and various other commands, including the ability to switch the SCAR's modes. With the link established I imputed a command to modify my ammo into the anti-synthetic disruptor rounds. Finally, I stood up, double checked myself making sure that I had everything and exited my office to head down to the cargo bay.

I exited the elevator to find everyone finalizing their preparations. Shepard and Garrus were checking the Mako while Wrex looked on, seeming almost bored. Everyone else were standing or sitting off to the side. Shepard looked up as I approached.

"All set?" She asked taking a step back.

"Yep. You told Joker where to drop me off?"

"Of course." She smirked "Wouldn't want you to land in a lake of lava now would we?"

I snorted as she turned and addressed the squad "Alright, everything is set. Everyone not being dropped, strap yourselves into your harnesses. Garrus, Wrex into the Mako, and try not to tear it to pieces before I get in there." She ordered and everyone headed to the sides of the cargo bay to strap themselves into the harnesses there so that they wouldn't fall out of the Normandy when the Mako was dropped. "Alright Wraith! I'll see you groundside!" Shepard called out as she got in the drivers seat of the Mako.

"Roger that commander. Don't take too long getting to the refinery! I don't want to have to wait on you again." I shouted back.

"You wish Wraith!" She retorted as the Mako door swung shut. A second later and I heard her over the radio "Comm check. Everyone hear me?"

"I hear ya." I said followed by everyone else.

"Alright then. Joker, you may begin your approach."

"Copy that Commander. Good luck."

The cargo bay ramp opened giving me a view of the lava planet as the Normandy was in a shallow dive. At the end of the dive Shepard hit the gas and the Mako plunged out of the Normandy. Right after the Mako cleared the ramp, Joker pulled the Normandy up from its dive and circled around to where I would jump. Unstrapping myself from my seat I stood up and made my way past the rest of the squad to the ramp. When I passed Ashley she said "Good luck down there sir. I'm glad its not me jumping out of the Normandy from 40 kilometers up."

I smirked under my mask, "Luck has various names. For me its called the Nanosuit." I said continuing past her to stand at the beginning of the ramp waiting for the now red light to turn green.

"Alright Wraith, I'm beginning my approach. Try not to repaint the ground down there. Its got enough red." Joker quipped.

"Got it Joker. I'll repaint the ground with geth oil. How about that?" I asked as SECOND reported being ready for drop.

"Sounds good Wraith. Off ya go!" Joker responded as the light turned green.

Without a second thought I sprinted along the ramp and jumped out of the Normandy. Immediately I could feel myself accelerating, speeding up in the near vacuum. I reached a max speed of 417m/s and smashed through the sound barrier. I then started to be slowed down by air resistance. I then could feel the Nanosuit starting to compensate for wind turbulence. I kept my eyes glued to my HUD as I watched my speed, altitude and time until my HALOM would activate. All the data had been calculated by SECOND before I jumped. I would be falling for 3 minutes until my HALOM would activate in which time I would have five seconds to right myself and land feet first on the ground.

I tensed as the countdown reached zero and a moment before the HALOM started slowing me down I snapped my arms out to my side, keeping my legs tight together. At the same time the nanosuit changed the outer layer of my arms and torso to become more air resistant causing my legs to fall faster than my body, righting me for landing. Two seconds later and I hit the ground with a dull thud, sinking into a crouch while stabilizing myself with my fist. _And to think, that phantoms are the only ones to drop from such a high altitude even though the first human to jump from 39km was way back in 2012. _I thought wryly thinking back to the jump performed by Felix Baumgartner one hundred and seventy one years ago that had given us the idea of dropping from high altitudes to quickly and covertly infiltrate enemy positions.

"Wraith is on the ground, moving on to the objective." I said over the comm.

"Copy that Wraith. We're making good progress. ETA fifteen minutes."

"Roger that Shepard. Gates will be down. Wraith out." I broke off the comm channel and made my way to the edge of the cliff overlooking the refinery. Looking down, I saw a small boulder sticking out fifteen meters down the cliff. Taking a step back I cloaked and jumped down to said boulder. From there I jumped down another ten meters on another boulder where I dropped on my stomach and uncloaked, allowing my energy reserves to recharge. My energy reserves recharged quickly due to the large amount of thermal energy around and once full I cloaked again and dropped down onto the roof of a building inside the compound.

Unfortunately as I dropped down I dislodged a few rocks which came tumbling down the cliff with loud clacks. Swearing silently as I heard the sounds of geth language below me, I dropped to my stomach once again and uncloaked so that I could make my move once my reserves filled up again. I was quickly reviewing the location of the gates in comparison to me by checking my map when I was suddenly, pulled from my thoughts by something grabbing my ankle. Flinching I looked behind me to see a geth that looked leaner than the normal geth troopers and had round balls on the end of its fingers, holding onto my ankle while its eye glowed red.

"_**Maximum Power."**_

Not even waiting to see what would happen when the geth finished charging its weapon, I kicked it away with all the strength my nanosuit could muster. The kick caused the geth to be thrown away from me at least twenty feet. This caused a massive growl to break out all around the building I was on as all the geth reacted angrily to my actions. Even before I could do more than scramble to my legs and draw my SCAR another geth, looking exactly like the one I had just kicked away, jumped up onto the roof with me.

As I released a burst from my SCAR it jumped away before I could even bring its shields down. I watched as it landed on the side of an antennae tower and climbed up the tower like it was crawling along the ground. I now knew what those balls on its fingers and I'd bet on its toes as well were. Suction cups. "Its like a damn frog." I muttered to myself as the geth suddenly decided that now would be a good time to demolish the building I was standing on with high explosive rockets. I staggered as the first rockets hit the building. Deciding that I didn't want to be part of a building demolition, I sprinted off the building. I landed on a geth trooper that, if geth could be surprised, definitely looked surprised as it crumpled beneath my weight.

Quickly unloading a couple of rounds into it at point blank range I took off running, putting another building between me and the army of pissed of robots. Here I quickly cloaked and ran on behind yet another building sliding behind it just as my suit reserves depleted. As I waited for my energy to recharge I asked "SECOND, whats the shortest route to the gates with the most cover from here."

"_**Route displayed. Waypoints updated."**_

"Alright thanks." I muttered as my energy finished recharging and I cloaked, making my way along the path given to me by SECOND. The path took me through the refinery compound without being detected. The geth were however spreading out, looking for me with a precision that only synthetics could achieve. Just as I neared the gatehouses Shepard spoke up over the comms.

"Wraith, this is Shepard. We are in position. Are the gates down yet?" She asked. Normally talking over the comm during a covert operation would be fine, not many had the technology to detect our radios. Even had the geth not known I was here, chances are they wouldn't have detected me. However since they did know I was here and they had tech to locate comm traffic I heard another who symphony of geth sounds coming from behind me.

"No. Not yet. I ran into a little situation here." I said activating power mode and jumping up onto the gatehouse.

"What kind of situation?" Shepard asked me, almost exasperated.

"The hot kind." I said jumping down between the two layers of the gate from the gatehouse roof.

"You were detected, weren't you?" Shepard asked flatly as I pulled out my three AEC charges and planted them all along the gate.

"Its not my fault the geth have jumping frogs with laser eyes!" I exclaimed jumping up on the other gatehouse and cloaking.

"Jumping... Frogs?."

"Pretty much." I said as I jumped down from the gatehouse and quickly made my way away from the gates.

"Just get those gates open." Shepard sighed over the radio.

"Already done." I said pressing the detonator.

The gate blew apart, debris being thrown halfway across the compound. Just as the thunder from the explosion faded away I heard the sound of the Mako engine as it came barreling through the remains of the gate guns blazing. Smirking I pulled out my SCAR, let it switch into SCARE mode and started taking potshots at any geth that could pose a threat to the Mako. After having blown the heads off of two geth rocket troopers I was busy trying to snipe one of those frog's which kept jumping around keeping me from getting a shot off at it when suddenly the frog was engulfed in a big fireball.

"Really?" I asked exasperated as I started to jog towards the Mako. "You just had to steal my kill with a giant cannon?"

Wrex, who obviously was on the cannon, chuckled "You were taking your sweet time and Shepard was getting impatient."

"I'll admit it was funny watching you try to hit that thing." Shepard said "But we really need to get moving."

I sighed as I pulled off my HALOM and put it into a container hanging off of the Mako "Stealing my kills, stealing my fun. I'll have to watch myself. I'm with a bunch of thieves."

"Oh don't exaggerate. Now if you'd be so kind," Shepard commanded, slipping into her commander role, "Scout the area ahead. We will finish up here and head out. Be sure to keep in radio contact."

"Got it, moving out." I turned and started running towards the other gate.

"_**Maximum Power"**_

As I neared the gate I put on a big boost of power and jumped over the gate. Right before I hit the ground, SECOND activated armor mode to absorb the impact. After I landed, SECOND reengaged power mode to help ease the strain of running. I soon came to a large lake of lava. On the bank there was a pipeline hugging the side of a cliff. I was running along the bank when SECOND highlighted something on my visor. I slowed to a stop and zoomed my visor in on the target. I saw two large quadruped walkers which I quickly realized were the geth Armatures or Colossus that Shepard had told me about. SECOND confirmed my thoughts a second later.

"_**Warning. Threat detected. Threat identified: Geth Armature. Proceed with caution."**_

_Damn. That could be problematic. _Viewing the area ahead I noticed another armature on the other side of the lava lake. SECOND highlighted that one as well. "Shepard, hold back. There are two armatures along the road and another on the other side of the lake."

"Copy that Wraith. Any thing else?" Shepard asked.

"Uh, yeah four geth troopers. Judging by their color schemes I'd say two snipers and two rocket troopers."

"Think you can deal with the troopers while we take care of the armatures?"

"Of course I can Shepard. Let me just get in position." I said and quickly ran underneath the pipeline as it came out of the mountain. Slowing down I went prone as I took out my DSG-1, putting my SCARE on the ground next to me, within reach. "I'm in position Shepard."

"Got it. Moving in now."

I sighted my rifle at one of the snipers as they posed the biggest threat to me. As soon as I heard the Mako fire I pulled the trigger watching in satisfaction as the sniper fell to the ground missing its head, its shields not having been up. Swiveling, I sighted down at the next sniper and fired off my next shot. That shot tore through the shields of the next sniper also removing its head. Switching targets I aimed at a rocket trooper and fired off my shot which tore through the geth's shields but barely missed, having been knocked off course by the kinetic barrier. Taking another quick shot I dispatched that trooper before grabbing my SCARE due to my DSG-1 having overheated. Sighting down at the last trooper I fired twice bringing its shields down and finishing it off with a quick third shot to the head. Looking up I saw the Mako _ramming_ the second armature sending it flying into the lava where it quickly sunk with a screech.

My attention was drawn to the Mako when something hit it. Looking over to the other armature I zoomed in with my visor and saw geth rocket troopers aiming another shot at the Mako. Grabbing my DSG-1 and activating its high powered zoom function, I aimed and was about to take a shot at a rocket trooper when the armature reared up, its head glowing white tinged with blue. Barely a second later a white orb blasted out from the Armature and sped towards the Mako. Luckily Shepard was able to dodge out of the way as Wrex returned fire. His first shot missed, instead hitting a rocket trooper next to it. I quickly took aim and took out the next rocket trooper with two quick shots. During this time Shepard was driving the Mako around the lake in an attempt to not get hit and get closer to the armature. Wrex was also able to score a hit on the armature causing its shields to flare brightly in my scope as I went to take out the last rocket trooper with another quick double tap.

As Shepard closed in on the armature, Wrex was able to score another direct hit with the main cannon bringing the armatures shields down and severely damaging it. Wrex then let loose with a massive barrage from the machine gun which finally brought the armature crashing down.

"Area looks clear. Get over here Wraith." Shepard ordered.

"Copy that." I holstered both of my weapons and got up, activating power mode to increase my speed. I finally reached the Mako and climbed on top of it, settling down next to the cannon's barrel "Don't move the gun Wrex, or you will knock me off." I warned to which Wrex only chuckled.

Shepard hit the gas and the Mako rolled around a bend in the road to show the first tunnel that we would have to go through. This tunnel would bring us to a small valley on the other side of which would be the second tunnel leading us to the dig site. The only problem was that there was another armature standing in our way. At least I thought it was an armature, but as I compared it to the tunnel itself I realized that it was a Colossus, which dwarfed the armatures.

"Shepard we have a problem."

"Understatement of the decade." She muttered in response as she slowed to a halt. "I don't suppose you have any anti-armor weapons with you?"

"As a matter of fact I do." I said.

"Is there anything you don't have, Wraith?" Garrus asked me amused.

"I don't have a jetpack." I said.

"So what do you have Wraith?" Shepard asked me.

"A JAW anti-tank rocket launcher. I however think that it wouldn't do much to the armor of that Colossus unfortunately." I said.

"_**Single JAW missile to the base of the head will destroy or severely damage Colossus."**_

I stayed silent as a model of the Colossus appeared on my visor indicating the target in question. It was a small gap in its armor right where the head met the neck where if a shot would hit should blast the Colossus's head clean off. The trick would be hitting that gap.

"How am I going to hit that tiny gap in its armor?" I muttered "I'll need to get a perfect lock on the gap which will take time."

"We should be able to keep it occupied while you get the lock and make the shot." Shepard said.

"It could take a while though Commander. The lock has to be perfect, and I only have two missiles." I said.

"Then make it perfect."

"Will do. After all perfect is what I do best."

"Just get it done. Wrex keep that things attention on us. Lets do this." Shepard said hitting the gas as I jumped off of the Mako and pulled out the JAW.

"Alright you geth sons of bitches let's do this." I muttered engaging power mode and running towards the Colossus to get in range. Just as I got in range the Mako started engaging the Colossus and I raised my JAW's scope to my visor and started to lock on.

Shepard and Wrex were doing a good job of keeping the Colossus occupied and not shooting at me, allowing me to lock on without interruption.

"_**25%"**_

The Colossus reared up, it's eye glowing a bluish while. Seconds later it fired a massive blast of plasma at the Mako which just barely dodged it.

"Hurry up Wraith!" Shepard shouted "I don't think that the Mako can take one of those hits!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" I shouted back.

"_**50%"**_

"Half way there!" I said.

"Make it faster!"

A flurry of machine gun bullets from the Colossus impacted on the Mako's shields.

"_**75%"**_

"Almost there" I muttered as the Mako dodged yet another blast of plasma. "Come on!"

Just as the Colossus reared up for another plasma blast I heard the beep signaling that I had locked on.

"_**100% Fire when Ready"**_

I quickly pulled the trigger before the Colossus could fire off its next plasma blast. Time seemed to slow down as the missile sped towards the Colossus. I was prepared to see the towering walker fall to the ground missing its head when suddenly its shields flared up and the missile detonated harmlessly right before it hit its weak spot, leaving the Colossus unscathed, even as it fired its plasma at the Mako once more.

"We forgot about the shields didn't we?" Shepard asked me, rather calmly as she maneuvered her way around the plasma.

"Fuck!" I swore "How could I forget about its shields? I only have one missile left Shepard! You have to take its shields down before I can make the next shot!"

"You don't have to tell me Wraith. I saw the first one hit its shields too you know." Shepard told me. Just then the colossus turned to face me, obviously having figured out where I was, what I was shooting at it and that at the moment I was the bigger threat. It immediately started unleashing a hailstorm of bullets at me as I was forced to run as fast as the suit would allow behind a small rock. "Fuck! I can't move its got me pinned down!"

"Don't worry about that. We'll get its shields down and get its attention again. You just worry about making sure the missile hits it next time." Shepard ordered "Wrex, open fire. Get that things shields down!"

"With pleasure."

I heard the loud blast from the Mako's cannon ring out once more, accompanied by the explosion from the Colossus's shields. The colossus however ignored the Mako, most likely having realized that I had cloaking from the refinery attack and was making sure that I couldn't cloak away. The Colossus seemed to be able to keep firing indefinitely as it never seemed to overheat. This however left the Mako free to hammer tit with round after round until finally, with the sound of breaking glass, its shields broke. Now it finally realised that it would be destroyed if it kept ignoring the Mako and finally let up on keeping me pinned down. And turned once more towards the Mako.

Cloaking I popped up from behind the rock, and aimed the JAW at the colossus once more. This time I achieved the lock much quicker, due to me having the data from the last lock and after a few seconds SECOND indicated that I was ready to fire. I however still had a problem. While the colossus had stopped firing at me it kept its head angled in such a way that it covered the weak point while firing its machine gun at the Mako. Realizing that I would have to wait for it to move I stayed still, conserving my suit energy as much as I could to prolong my cloak.

After almost a minute of waiting and just as my Cloak was about to fail the colossus finally slipped up. Rearing up it aimed its head towards the Mako as its "eye" glowed white. Taking my chance I pulled the trigger, spitting out the missile which after a split second hit the the colossus directly in the base of its head. The explosion snapped its head back where another round from the Mako connected blowing its head off completely.

"Nice shot Wraith, and good follow up Wrex. Took that Colossus out no problem." Shepard congratulated us.

"One problem Shepard. I don't have any more JAW missiles. That means that if we come across another colossus we will have to deal with it another way."

"Then lets hope we won't have to. Now hop on."

"Yes ma'am." I jogged over to the Mako and climbed on top of it, settling down on my previous seat next to the cannon. "Alright Shep. Punch it."

The ride through the tunnel went interrupted, save for the two geth troopers that I gunned down as we drove past. The tunnel opened up to show a small valley where I was surprised to see no geth waiting for us at all. "Anyone else find it strange that there are no geth waiting for us here?" I asked.

"Strange? Yes. But is that really a bad thing?" Garrus asked.

"Well, it could be a good or a bad thing." I said "It would be good if they just don't have enough geth to throw at us anymore."

"And how would it be a bad thing?"

"If they learned that sending geth against a tank is stupid and are waiting for us where we can't go with the tank." Wrex answered for me.

"Oh, right." Garrus muttered.

"So keep your guard up people. We don't want them catching us off guard." I said.

As we continued along the road it became more and more apparent that the geth weren't going to be attacking us while in the Mako. Shepard parked the Mako right in front of the canyon before announcing "It's time to ditch the Mako. We'll continue on foot."

_A/N: Alright, so first part of Therum is done. Next up, the squad goes up against the geth troops on foot and meet up with Dr. Liara T'soni. Looks like the next update will be in 2013. So look out for it on the 5th! _

_As an answer to a review left to me by a guest so I couldn't PM you directly:_

_Gillespie, the events of Crysis canon have not happened in NE. There was no Tunguska, no Ling Shan, no New York events involving the Ceph. Alkatraz was not born in Crysis canon time, rather he was born in ME times so that he isn't that old. And Alkatraz will not be joining Shepard's squad in NE especially as at the moment he doesn't have a Nanosuit, only GHOST armor. Hope that cleared things up. Thanks for reviewing anyway!_

_P.S. World didn't end. That's good I guess. _


	7. Chapter 7: The Therum Crysis: Part 2

_Disclaimer: I own neither Mass Effect or Crysis. _

_As usual, thanks to DN7 for his betaing work. _

"It's time to ditch the Mako. We'll continue on foot abd let Joker pick it up when we've cleared the dig site." Shepard announced as I jumped off the Mako. Looking back, I watched as the Mako hatch opened up and Garrus climbed out.

"How's it going?" he asked as he walked up to stand next to me.

"Good." I said, glancing back at Wrex who had just climbed out of the Mako and was complaining about the Mako not being big enough for a krogan.

"You didn't have to take the guns you know Wrex. You could have stayed in the crew compartment where there is more room." Shepard chuckled.

"And let a turian take the guns? I don't think so Shepard." Wrex grumbled as Shepard slid gracefully out of the Mako.

"Alright guys. Dig site is just through this canyon here. Expect heavy geth resistance. They might be setting up an ambush. Wraith, I want you to go on ahead to scout out the area. Once we know what we're dealing with we'll make a plan of action." She ordered.

"Got it Shepard. I'm moving." I said cloaking and walking into the canyon. The first thing I noticed was that it was empty; No geth there at all. I furrowed my brow while I walked forward along the snaking path. It didn't make any sense to me, this would be the best place for an ambush and I didn't believe that the geth wouldn't take the opportunity. "SECOND, are you picking up any geth activity?" I asked.

"_**Negative. No geth activity."**_

"None at all?" I asked, surprised at the missed opportunity. "Shepard, the canyon is clear. No geth of any kind." I paused when I didn't receive an answer. "Commander?"

"_**Warning. Jamming field in place. Warning. geth activity detected. "**_

_Fuck_. I thought as all of a sudden geth started popping up from all over the place, leveling their weapons at me. I realized that they must have been able to see through my cloak as I dived forward dodging most of their shots. Turning the dive into a roll to get behind some cover right at the base of a cliff side allowed me to stay out of sight of most of the geth. Switching into armor mode I pulled out my SCAR and spun to my side firing off a burst at the geth still able to hit me.

I was able to take one out before the others ducked behind cover themselves. Grimacing as the others were still pouring fire all around me, pinning me down, I pulled out a frag grenade and primed it. After a second I popped up out of cover, and threw the grenade at a cluster of geth, popping back in cover before I could see it explode.

"Alright SECOND. Give me some options." I said, as rock showered me from all the impacts on my cover.

"_**Attempting to circumvent jamming field."**_

_Damn._ I thought realizing that I couldn't move from my position and the best I could do was attempt to pick off the geth one by one until Shepard would either come looking for me or hear the gunfire. I flinched as a rather large chunk of rock fell to the ground, showing me exactly how thin my cover was becoming. I moved to the side of my cover until I reached the edge. Peeking out, I saw another rock standing about five meters away. Realizing that I would need to move sooner rather than later I prepared to make a mad dash for the next dash. I switched into power mode in an attempt to make it to the rock before being hit too much.

Just as I was about to dash to the next rock I finally heard something that brought me great relief, the familiar staccato of assault rifles that didn't belong to the geth coming from behind me.Almost immediately the fire keeping me suppressed slightly let up as some geth turned to engage the new threat. I however still sprinted from cover and slid behind the rock that was my new cover. I could feel the various impacts as the geth hit me during the run but they didn't make their way through my armoring. By the time I had pressed myself into the rock the fire on me had let up considerably, allowing me to start picking off some more geth.

A loud thump sounded behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to see a geth shock trooper standing there a shotgun raised at my face. Before I could do much more than spin around the trooper was surrounded by blue flame and was yanked of its feet towards me. Quickly activating power mode I punched the geth sending it flying into the wall where impacted with a loud crunch. Raising my foot I slammed it down on the geth's head smashing it to pieces. I looked up just in time to see the last geth loose its head to Shepard's SCAR.

"Well Shepard, its nice of you to show up. I thought I was going to be alone at this party." I panted as the adrenaline from the fight wore off.

"You ok?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah. They were expecting me. Saw me straight through my cloak and activated a jamming field."

"We heard the gunfire. Figured you had messed something up." Shepard told me.

"Please. I don't mess stuff up." I scoffed.

"Keep telling yourself that."

"They set up a jamming field. We won't be able to use our comms with it up." I told her.

"I know. Keep your eyes open for a jamming device of some kind. Now let's move up." She ordered, "Wrex in front."

"Got it." Wrex acknowledged walking forward. I joined Shepard who had her SCAR out while Garrus followed us with his Mantis sniper rifle. I turned around to look back at the site of the ambush. Geth bodies littered the floor everywhere back to the side of the cliff was a small rock more resembling Swiss cheese than an actual rock. Shaking my head in slight amusement I turned back towards Wrex who was plodding along the canyon. As the canyon started opening up Wrex slowed to a stop, pressing himself against the wall he peeked out for a second before drawing back and turning towards Shepard. "Lots of geth out there Shepard." he said quietly.

She nodded before responding "Wraith, think you can peek out without them noticing you?"

"Probably. The cloaking should lower my thermal image enough that they won't notice." I said taking Wrex's place who moved out of the way.

"_**Cloak Engaged."**_

I poked my head around the corner, allowing me to get a good view of the area. Switching over to my suits Visor mode I began identifying and tagging the various geth spread around the place. Cursing to myself for Shepard's lack of GHOST armor so that she could see what I'm identifying I started voicing my findings. "Alright we have a path that leads straight forward for about fifty meters. It makes a U turn and heads up along a cliff to the top where it makes another U turn on towards the dig site. There are three towers up on top of the cliff with a sniper in each. Four shock troopers are on the bottom path which has plenty of cover, along with ten regular troopers." I zoomed in on some geth on the ridge and my suit tagged them as rocket troopers. "There are four rocket troopers on the ridge, along with four more regular troopers. Single geth destroyer is at the end of the bottom path." I finished, zooming out from the towering geth.

"Is that it? No drones? None of those hoppers?" Shepard asked.

"No. No fliers, no frogs."

"Alright. Garrus, Wraith, I want you two to get rid of the geth on the ridge while Wrex and I deal with the geth at the bottom of the ridge. We may need your help with the destroyer so when you're finished focus fire to bring it down. Got it?"

"Of course Commander." Garrus said instantly.

"Finally some real fun." Wrex said happily.

"Snipe the flashlight heads. Got it." I nodded before turning to Garrus "How many shots can you fire and how many does it take to bring the geth down?" I asked.

"10 shots and two shots per geth."

I nodded once thinking "Rate of cooldown?" I asked.

"One shot every two seconds." Garrus answered immediately.

"Finally, time to acquire a new target, about fifty meters down range, five meters max distance from each geth?"

"One to two seconds."

"Alright, this is what we're going to do. I'll take out the three snipers and you take out the four rocket troopers. After those are down we focus down the regular troopers. I'll probably have a single shot left before overheat after the snipers so it will be down to you to take the majority of those out. Alright?" I asked having detailed my plan out.

"Fine with me. We're ready Shepard." Garrus said acquiescing to my plan as I holstered my SCAR and drew my DSG-1.

"Alright, Wraith, Garrus you take the first shot. After you fire Wrex and I will engage the shock troopers. Keep those snipers and rockets off us." Shepard ordered.

"Alright, you ready Garrus?" I asked.

"I believe I already answered that question." Garrus chuckled. "May the best sniper win."

I nodded and shouted "Now!" I jumped out of cover, raising my DSG-1 to my visor and acquired my target with speed and precision that only the nanosuit could give me. As my crosshairs came to rest on the head of the sniper on the last tower I pulled the trigger sending a electrically wrapped shard of titanium armor piercing metal downrange. It's shields flared as it attempted to stop the hyper velocity round which tore through them and caused the geth's head to explode in a shower of sparks.Beside me I heard the sharp retort of Garrus's sniper rifle even as I switched targets to the next tower and its sniper. Pulling the trigger again caused this sniper to also fall to the ground, missing its flashlight. It was now that I felt, rather than saw Wrex charging down the hill with a massive roar. There was another retort from beside me as Garrus took his second shot. Sighting in on the last sniper this one too lost its head to my DSG-1, which gave a beeping overheat warning afterward.

Holstering my sniper, I drew my SCAR and switched it to its SCARE mode. In this time Garrus had taken out the remaining rocket troopers and was taking down the rest of the troopers with two quick and accurate shots to the head. When I finally raised my SCARE to my visor there was only one geth Trooper left which went down in an instant as both Garrus and I both pulled the trigger the same time taking its shields down and removing its head at the same time. Now I was able to look down at Shepard and Wrex who were tearing up the geth down at the bottom. Looking on I noticed the destroyer stomping towards them.

"Cover me!" I shouted at Garrus as I switched the SCARE to its SCARAB mode and ran down the hill.

"_**Cloak engaged"**_

I ran past the fight between Wrex, Shepard and the geth undetected as they were all busy fighting and circled around the destroyer even as it got closer to the fight. When I came up behind the Destroyer, I uncloaked and realized that I wouldn't be able to kill it before it turned around and blasted me into a very expensive corpse. So I decided to improvise. Drawing my Charcharias dagger while holstering the SCARAB I sprinted towards the Destroyer's unprotected back and jumped up, hooking my arm around its neck as it immediately started jerking around trying to shake me off. Holding on tighter I plunged my dagger into its neck, severing some wires. Immediately the massive juggernaut fell to the ground and as I jumped off towards where Wrex and Shepard were fighting the geth I saw something that made my blood run cold. A bolt of biotic energy was speeding straight towards me. I was unable to do anything as I fell towards the ground where the warp would hit me head on. Bracing myself I hit the ground and was hit by the bolt. Immediately pain ripped through my chest as my suit twisted and turned on a molecular level tearing through the nanoweave like it was tissue paper. After tearing through the nanoweave it tore through my skin. My visor darkened as I fell to the ground. I could faintly hear panicked yelling in the background before even that faded as the suit locked itself down completely.

Shepard's POV, Moments before

Shepard was in her element. While Wraith was the undisputed stealth operative and could no doubt hold his own in normal combat, Shepard thrived in the thick of combat, devastating everything that stood in her way. Yet throughout the entire battle she remained aware of her surroundings. Wrex was just behind her, smashing a geth into a wall. She remained aware of the geth destroyer closing in on her even as she pulled another trooper straight into the muzzle of a shotgun.

Spinning around she gathered a ball of dark energy in her hand and threw the warp at the destroyer. That's when things went wrong. As the warp left her hand she saw something that made her blood run cold. The Destroyer was toppling to the ground and Wraith was jumping down from having climbed up and had stabbed the thing in the neck, he was not where she thought he was, back with Garrus. Time seemed to slow down as Wraith and the warp headed for collision.

Wraith hit the ground and the warp slammed into his chest, what little hope Shepard had that the nanosuit would be able to defend against the warp was shattered as it tore a gaping hole in the suit and into Wraith's chest underneath. "Wraith!" Shepard yelled as Wraith staggered and fell back landing on his back. Making a mad dash towards him, Shepard slid to a stop over him. "Fuck! Man down! Man down!" Shepard grabbed Wraith and pulled him back behind some cover before getting a good look at the damage. The warp had torn a massive hole in the suit and had gone through and torn up his chest as well. She could see his ribs and even his sternum exposed to the air. And even those were badly damaged.

Shepard hesitated, normally someone sustaining such injuries wouldn't survive very long and medi-gel could at most allow the wounded to reach a med-lab with the proper facilities. Shepard was drawn back to the scene not even five hours ago where Raven team's medic Tigress had told her that medi-gel would only hinder the suit. Shepard however wondered if that would be the case with such a injury.

Just as Shepard decided to risk it, something happened that caused her to stop and stare in astonishment. The chest cavity was for the lack of a better word _bubbling _as a dark grey substance started covering the wound. The substance spread quickly and when it had covered the entire wound it hardened, giving the appearance of synthetic skin stretching across Wraith's chest.

Shepard sank back astonished, she had just seen the nanosuit heal an injury that should have been fatal within seconds. _Well, it stabilized him within seconds._ She amended herself _I doubt that he is completely healed._

Less than a minute later Wraith took a big gasp of air and said "What the?"

Wraith POV, moments after impact

SECOND started speaking even as my visor showed a view of my suit and body, a massive hole in the chest of the suit highlighted, along with a large area right underneath that area on my body also highlighted in red.

"_**Warning. Catastrophic suit damage. Suit integrity, 0%. **_

_**Switching to mass repair mode. Life-support priority."**_

The view of my suit changed to show the suit on a microscopic level as the nanocells became active.

"_**Warning. user damage detected. Advanced healing engaged. Injecting emergency nanocells. Repairing systems." **_

With the nanocells active and beginning to repair the damage to me and the suit my visor view switched to the suits deep layers

"_**Warning. Deep layer protocols engaging. **_

_**Analyzing attack. Processing. . . **_

_**Attack identified. Dark energy amplification. Dark energy damage contained. **_

_**Re-booting core functions. . . **_

_**Dark energy vector isolated; retained at deep layer. Processing. . . **_

_**Nano-form analysis underway. Compatibility register enabled. Processing. . . **_

_**Compiling profile. Nano-evolution protocols engaged. Nano-evolution viability assessment underway. Processing. . ." **_ With that my visor cleared, granting me vision of the outside world once more.

Shepard's extremely agitated face swam into view above me. "What the?" I muttered thinking back to what the suit had been doing.

"Wraith! Just stay calm. Let the suit do its work." Shepard immediately said, looking at my chest.

"Oh, fuck." I swore as my muscles clenched and pain broke through the pain killers the suit had me on. "Argh, I'm fine." I said.

"What do you mean you're fine? I just hit you with a warp! That's not something you just get up from!" Shepard cried out, almost hysterically.

"Relax, Vanyali" I said, calling Shepard by her first name "The suit took most of the damage. I was barely hit by it. Biotics tear the suit apart. It can't defend itself against dark energy. Although..." I trailed off in thought thinking back to what the suit was doing. "SECOND, status report."

"_**Suit integrity, 23% and rising. User damage has been repaired. Deep layer protocols have been engaged. Dark energy targeted nanoshell on molecular level. Nano-evolution viability assessment is underway."**_

I furrowed my eyebrows at this. "Nano-evolution?" _So it's trying to find a defense? _

"What's going on?" Shepard asked, still rather shaken.

I sighed as I began to explain "The nano-evolution protocols are what control the nanosuit's evolution and adaptation. First it has to figure out if its even possible. This is the viability assessment. Once that's done the suit can change itself to accommodate the new upgrade. Pretty much from what I can tell its trying to evolve to create a protection against biotics." I explained.

"Is that even possible?" Shepard asked.

"If it is, the nanosuit will find a way." I responded.

"Right. Right." She muttered "Normandy won't be able to make a pickup until we clear the dig site so-"

"Hold it right there Shepard. I am not going to be extracted now." I interrupted her.

"You were just hit by a warp. I am in no way going to let you go on. This is not debatable." She told me, eyes flashing.

"Bah. I might not be able to engage in any heavy combat but I am far from useless. I'll be able to give you sniper support. I've had worse injuries and was still able to continue the op."

"You've been badly injured not even five hours ago wraith. You were unconscious for an hour." She argued back.

"Tigress kept me sedated. Otherwise I'd have been up and running within half an hour, and those injuries were much worse than this." I told her. It was then that SECOND spoke up.

"_**All systems rerouted. Cleared to proceed.**_ **_Warning. Suit integrity, 50%."_**

With my suit functions back online I stood up. Shepard obviously didn't like me getting up but didn't say anything.

"Look, Shepard. I know the nanosuit better than you right?" I asked. Shepard was forced to nod slowly. "Then trust me. I know what I can do and what I can't."

Shepard was silent for a few moments before finally, "Fine. But you are staying well behind the actual fighting until your suit is fully repaired." She told me gesturing towards my chest.

Looking down I saw what she was indicating, there was an area right over my chest where there was a distinctive lack of muscled nanoweave. The muscled look replaced by a flat area of a replacement nanoweave. The Coltan-titanium was also missing, giving the nanosuit a damaged look. The replacement nanoweave would be replaced over time by the suit itself, the Coltan-titanium however would need extensive repairs at a proper facility. While the Nanosuit could compensate for the missing metal it would be that much weaker until it was fixed. "Will do commander."

"Alright, Wrex! Garrus! We're moving out. Intel has the dig site at the top of that ridge. Wraith once we reach the top, I want you to find an elevated area and provide us sniper support. Lets try to minimize friendly fire from here on out." While it sounded like Shepard was joking around I could tell that the incident had shaken her.

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do about that." I said, already planning on requisitioning some GHOST armor for the team, which would allow for greater battlefield awareness for everyone.

When we reached the top of the ridge, I could see the dig site up ahead. Off to the right was a hill that looked perfect for a sniper nest. Informing Shepard of my decision I climbed up the hill and drew both my DSG-1 and my SCARE, placing the DSG-1 on the ground next to me as I lay down on my stomach, raising the six power optical scope of the SCARE to my visor. I peered down at the squad as they were heading over to the dig site. "I'm in position." I said over the comm.

"Copy that. Any hostiles?" Shepard questioned immediately.

"Negative. I see no hostiles at the dig site. That however doesn't mean much as the Geth seem adept at hiding themselves."

"Alright. Keep your guard up people. I wouldn't be surprised if we're walking into another ambush." Shepard warned.

I kept a close watch on the dig site as the squad moved up. To the right of the path was the entrance to the actual mine, while on the left were a couple of prefab shelters with a walkway overlooking the entire camp. Just as the squad walked underneath the walkway did I see movement. "Movement! We have movement!" I shouted as four geth hoppers jumped up onto the pillars holding up the walkway. "Incoming dropship!" I warned as I saw said dropship come flying towards the digsite. As the dropship slowed to a hover over the digsite it started bleeding geth until finally the last thing it dropped with an audible thud from where I was lying. Immediately the strangely shaped package started transforming until the final product was standing infront of the squad.

"Armature! Get in cover!" Shepard shouted as the geth all started firing as one. "Wraith, take out those hoppers!"

I didn't even bother answering as I sent my first round downrange. The disruptor SCARE round was able to tear through the hopper's weak shielding and a second shot removed its head. The same thing happened with the next two hoppers. The last hopper however was able to dodge my first two shots until finally my third one smashed its way through a leg, blowing it completely off. When the hopper fell to the ground, unable to jump any longer it was finished off with a burst from Garrus's assault rifle.

With the hoppers dead I shifted my focus on taking out the other geth that were engaging the squad. My disruptor SCARE shots were able to take out geth troopers with two shots to the head, a single if I were able to hit the geth precisely in their optics. While I was taking out troopers attempting to flank the squad, I could hear Shepard barking out orders to Garrus and Wrex, telling them who to kill and what abilities to use. Eventually after taking out the last geth trooper, leaving only the Armature standing Shepard called out to me. "We need to take that armature down. Any ideas?"

"Just one!" I responded laying my SCARE to the side and picking up my DSG-1 "But you will have to take its shields down for it to work." I said, sending a command to the DSG-1 through my suit.

"Copy that Wraith. Let's take this things shields down!" Shepard ordered as my DSG-1's barrel lengthened to twice its already considerable length and the ammo block popped out. Pulling it out completely I drew a specialized round from a pouch on my vest.

Inserting the round into the rifle a low humming noise emanated from the rifle as I said "Let's introduce these boys to a little human ingenuity – the mark twelve penetrator round!" Raising the scope to my visor I strengthened my arm and shoulder with my suit as I waited for the armature's shields to drop. Finally with the sound of breaking glass, the shields dropped and I pulled the trigger of the now beefed up DSG-1. An enormous c_rack_ sounded as the hyper velocity round tore through the air and smashed its way through the armature's head, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks and oil. The recoil from the over powered shot had completely drained my suits energy as it attempted to keep the recoil from blowing my arm completely off. Raising my eyes from the scope I saw the while trail from the muzzle of my rifle to where the armature used to be dissipating. Silence fell upon the dig site as the rest of the squad looked at the armature in disbelief.

"And that is how you take out a walking tank. With an overpowered sniper rifle." I stated loudly over the comms.

"Overpowered is one way of putting it..." I heard Shepard mutter, followed by Wrex's shout of triumph.

"HA! Killing stuff with big guns. This is why I joined up with you Shepard!"

"And why didn't you use that against that destroyer Wraith?" Garrus asked.

"Mainly because it can fry the systems of the rifle if I use it too much." I answered looking ruefully at the flashing red light on my visor "So I try to limit its use against big targets."

"Alright. Now if the Phantom is done showing off his toys he can come down and join us in entering the mine." Shepard called out to me.

Chuckling slightly I holstered my DSG-1 and switched the SCARE back to SCAR. Standing, I jogged along the ridge until I reached the dig site where I dropped into a slide and slid down the hill coming to a rest on my feet at the bottom. "Ready when you are Shep."

Rolling her eyes Shepard motioned us towards the mine entrance saying "Wraith, you're last. You're suit doesn't look 100%."

"Right." I grumbled looking down at my chest to see that the replacement nanoweave had almost fully formed.

I followed the rest of the squad into an airlock that would lead on to the rest of the mine. We stood in silence as the airlock opened again, giving us a view of a long downward sloping tunnel. We started our way down the tunnel until:

"_**Warning. Hostiles detected."**_

"Stay close and keep alert. Wrex in front. Garrus get behind me-"

"That's what she said." I muttered.

Shepard ignored my comment by finishing up with, "Wraith you stay at the back. Move up."

The procession continued on, slower until we came out on a catwalk. "Two geth below!" Wrex shouted his shotgun already barking to life as he took a shot at one of them. The rest of us ran up next to him and opened fire on the two geth shock troopers below us. Almost immediately the two geth deployed a shimmering kinetic barrier in front of them, protecting them from our attacks. As soon as they did, my suit highlighted a pressurized fuel container right behind them and I shifted my aim towards it. The container burst as the pressurized gas rapidly escaped the compromised container and a second later Garrus hit the container with an overload igniting the fuel in a colossal fireball which destroyed both geth.

"Alright, good job." Shepard complimented us. "I may just keep you two." She teased as we walked down to where the geth used to be.

"I have to say, I've never been in a Prothean ruin before." I commented regarding the architecture. "Its interesting to say the least."

"What about the Citadel? That's Prothean." Garrus said giving me the turian equivalent of a smirk.

"Ugh. You know what I mean." I responded as we entered an elevator that would bring us deeper into the mine.

"It seems like the Protheans built to last, if it survived this long." Shepard commented looking around. "It's still in rather good shape." She said as the elevator opened and we stepped out onto another catwalk. Immediately four geth assault drones rose up from below us, but they were immediately taken out by a flurry of shotgun blasts and assault rifle bursts.

"Sterile white. The Protheans sure built things homey." Wrex commented as if nothing had happened.

"That's for sure." Shepard responded as we entered the next elevator leading down.

The ride down the second elevator was spent in silence until suddenly the elevator's gears and breaks started sparking and groaning.

"_**Warning elevator structural failure."**_

"Uh oh." I muttered as the elevator began gaining speed as it began to fall.

"HOLD ON!" Shepard shouted and we did exactly that.

When the elevator came to an abrupt stop, we were all thrown to the ground where we laid groaning for a second. I stood up first, saying "And that is why you should not exceed the maximum load of an elevator."

"Is everyone alright?" Shepard asked.

"It would take more than a little fall to hurt me Shepard." Wrex grunted.

"I'm fine." Garrus responded.

"Look at who you are asking shep." I said when Shepard looked at me. "Stand back." I warned.

"_**Maximum Power."**_

I bent down, digging my fingers underneath the door and pulled it up. With the door up I jumped down onto a broken catwalk at the bottom of the ruins and took a look around. Shepard followed me down and when Garrus and Wrex had joined us I picked up a voice with my suits auditory sensors.

"Uh... Hello? Could somebody help me? Please?"

"What was-?" Garrus asked confused as SECOND had broadcast it to the rest of the squad.

"_**Positive vocal ID match to Dr. Liara T'Soni."**_

"Guess that answers that question." Shepard muttered dropping down from the catwalk we were on to another at the bottom of the excavation. After joining her I saw the asari hanging inside some kind of bubble behind a large kinetic barrier.

"Liara T'Soni I presume?" Shepard asked.

"Thank the Goddess! I did not think that anyone would come looking for me. I am trapped in some kind of Prothean security device. I can't move, so I need you to get me out of it all right?" Liara answered.

"How did you end up in there?" I asked.

"I was exploring the ruins when the Geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe that? geth! Beyond the Veil!" She responded.

"Yeah, I think that we can believe that, due to the fact that we just blasted through a few dozen of them on our way here." I responded dryly.

"I activated the tower's defenses. I knew that the barrier would be able to keep them out." She continued, "But when I turned it on I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out. Please."

"Yeah. That's what happens when you mess with unknown technology. I know the feeling." Shepard muttered.

"You would Shep. You would." I responded.

"Your mother is working with Saren. Whose side are you on?" Garrus asked Liara.

"What? I am not on anybody's side! I may be Benezia's daughter but I have not spoken to her in years! Please. Just get me out of here." Liara said.

"We will find some way to help you Liara." Shepard said.

"There is a control here that will allow you to turn this off, but you would have to find a way past the barrier." Liara said, motioning towards a console beside her with her head.

"My guess is that there are no conveniently located buttons out here to turn off the barrier?" I asked sardonically.

"No. It can only be shut down from the inside." Liara answered.

"Why are these things never simple?" I asked myself.

"Don't worry Liara. We will get you out of there." Shepard said reassuringly.

"Any ideas?" I asked.

"Yeah. Let's deal with these geth first." Came Shepard's reply as she saw movement in the cavern behind us.

"Take them out!" Wrex shouted charging down the ramp leading towards the cavern.

"I'll take em from up here Shepard!" I said before running into a position with a good view of the cavern.

"Good idea! Garrus join him. I'm going down to help Wrex." Shepard said as she too headed down the ramp.

"Looks like Wrex doesn't need help." I muttered commenting on Wrex's performance down there while drilling a sniper first.

"Indeed." Garrus chuckled as he took out the other sniper.

With the snipers down we were able to take shots at the Geth that Wrex and Shepard were not engaging at the moment. "I wonder what that is." Garrus said after a few shots.

"What?" I asked looking over at him.

"That." Garrus said pointing towards some kind of mining machinery.

"_**Object Identified. Object matches profiles of a mining laser. Note: Mining laser could be used to blast a hole in wall to reach Dr. T'soni."**_

"I think we just solved the problem of getting through to Liara." I said "That there is a mining laser. I think you can see how that would be useful."

"Ahh. Yes I think I can." Garrus chuckled.

"Do you boys see anymore geth here?" Shepard radioed as she finished off the last shock trooper.

"Negative Shepard. All threats neutralized. Garrus here found something that should help us get through to Liara." I responded jumping down to the cavern floor.

"Oh?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah. That's a mining laser. We should be able to hack it and blast a way through the wall." Garrus said.

"Nice. I think I might enjoy this." Shepard said almost giddily as she walked up to the mining laser. "Lets see now."

"Uh Shepard, why don't you let me handle the hacking of the giant laser beam." I said gently pushing Shepard to the side and allowing SECOND to interface with it.

"_**Hack in progress. . . Establishing control. . . Control Established. Firing laser."**_

The laser blasted its way through the wall underneath the kinetic barrier Liara was behind, allowing us to enter the tower through our newly made entrance. We came out on what seemed to be a large elevator leading all the way to the top however Shepard quickly found a problem.

"These are in Prothean. I have no idea what they say, for all I know I could tell the thing to smash us into a wall."

"Yeah, that could be a problem. SECOND, see if you can't figure it out."

"_**Hack in progress. . . Establishing control. . . Control Established. Raising elevator one floor." **_

"There we go." I said nodding. "If in doubt, use an AI."

"Good job." Shepard said as the elevator moved up to where Liara was trapped in her bubble.

"How did you get in here? I didn't think that there was a way past the barrier!" Liara asked as we approached her.

"If you find a mining laser, its quite simple. You just blast through. Surely you heard the noise?" Shepard asked.

"Of course yes. That makes sense. Please get me out before more Geth arrive. That button over there should shut down this containment field." Liara said.

"Hold. Let's have SECOND deal with this. We don't want you to press another button that will cause something worse to happen now do we?" I asked walking towards the terminal and allowing SECOND to interface with it.

"_**Hack in progress. . . Establishing control. . . Control Established. Releasing security systems. Security systems released."**_

T'soni landed on the floor on all fours as the bubble keeping her there dissipated.

"Any idea how we can get out of this place?" Garrus asked after Liara got up.

"Yeah, does that elevator in the center lead up to the top?" Shepard asked.

"It should lead us out of here." Liara said.

"Got it. Lets go boys." Shepard said and we walked towards the Elevator. "Wraith, get this elevator moving."

"Got it Shep." I said before SECOND began to bring the elevator up to the top.

"I still cannot believe this. Why would the Geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?" Liara asked.

"Saren is looking for the Conduit. You're a Prothean expert. Obviously he wants you to help him find it." Garrus explained.

"The Conduit? But I don't know-" Liara was interrupted by a loud rumbling that shook the tower.

"What the hell was that?" Wrex asked.

"_**Ruins unstable. Mining laser triggered seismic event. Suggestion: Evacuation of ruins required."**_

"We have to hurry this whole place is caving in!" Liara said.

"Joker! Get the Normandy airborn and lock in on my signal. On the double mister!" Shepard ordered Joker over the comms.

"Aye, Aye Commander. Secure and aweigh. ETA eight minutes." Came Joker's swift reply.

"If I die in here I'll kill him" Wrex said.

"We have to get out of here now!" I said as we arrived at the top, only to be confronted by a krogan Battlemaster, a shock trooper, a rocket trooper and a sniper.

"Surrender! Or don't that would be more fun." The Battlemaster said to us.

"We don't have time to deal with this idiot! Charge!" Shepard said taking out her shotgun followed by Wrex taking his out and Garrus taking out his assault rifle.

"I like your attitude!" The Battlemaster said.

"I thought you'd never ask Shepard." I said grinning under my mask.

"_**Maximum Power."**_

I instantly charged forward drawing my dagger in the process. Leaping up I stabbed down on the Battlemaster only to have him jump to the side and try to punch me. Spinning around I avoided his strike before slashing out with my dagger, scoring a hit on his arm.

"HA! Its been a long time since I had a worthy opponent." The Battlemaster said before flaring biotically and throwing me into a pillar. Hitting the pillar feet first I immediately kicked off, switching my knife to my left hand. Right before I flew over the Battlemaster, my suit changed its outer texture to generate a lot of air friction, causing my trajectory to change so that I would land right on top of the krogan. My suit then caused a combination of things to happen. Firstly my right arm received a strength boost. Secondly, my right fist engaged armor. As I came down on top of the krogan, I hit him with a super powered punch which went right through his skull and impacted on the ground leaving a fist shaped dent, completely draining my energy in the process.

"Spirits!" Garrus exclaimed and I turned to see them staring at the Battlemaster's exploded head, the rest of the geth all lying scattered around the place.

"Now is not the time people! This place is going down we need to get out now!" I said quickly.

"You heard the man, lets move people! Get out of here!" Shepard yelled and we started running towards the exit with me bringing up the rear. As we came out where we came in rocks began falling all over the place. All of a sudden after Liara passed over a point on the catwalk a large boulder fell down and destroyed the walkway in front of me. Without hesitation, I jumped over the gaping hole rolling as I came up and started running again. "GO! GO! GO!" Shepard yelled as she let Wrex, Garrus and Liara past her. She started running again right before I got to her and we both sprinted up the long corridor to the surface. Just before we got above ground, there was a massive crash and we were enveloped in a large cloud of dust. Finally emerging above ground, everyone stopped to catch their breath, or in my case to allow the suit to recharge.

I looked up to see the Normandy coming down and said, "Evac has arrived. Lets get out of here."

"_**Objective complete. Mission successful."**_

_A/N: Alright, well here is the friendly fire scene. I think that I've written it better than I did the last time. _

_Your feedback would be greatly appreciated, I definitely want to make NE the best it can be. _

_I am still taking some Inquisitor submissions for anyone who has some. The first submitted inquisitors will be making their appearance soon. _

_As always, I will see you guys on the 19th. _

_~LEGION_


	8. Chapter 8: The Prism

_Disclaimer: I don't own Crysis or Mass Effect. _

_A/N: Thanks as always to DN7 who Beta's NE. _

Upon boarding the Normandy, I soon found myself sitting down in the briefing room with Shepard standing to my left while Kaidan sat down on my right with Ashley to his right. Garrus sat opposite me with Tali and Liara sitting beside him and Wrex took the last seat next to Liara for himself. When everyone was seated, or in Shepard's case standing, Joker's voice came over the PA. "Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulfur. The Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for future reference." Joker finished causing me to smirk beneath my mask.

"We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked disbelieving.

"That's Joker for you." Shepard said still smiling, "It eases the tension."

"Not to mention absolutely true." I said "The Normandy isn't equipped to land in anything above a Class II Heat Hazard."

"I see. It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience with your species, Commander." Liara responded. "But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there. And not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me. Or dragged me off to Saren."

"What did Saren want with you? Do you know something about the Conduit?" Kaidan asked.

"Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. That in my real area of expertise. I have spent the past 50 years trying to figure out what happened to them." She responded.

"Did your research turn up anything interesting?" Shepard asked.

"What is interesting is what I didn't turn up. There is remarkably little archeological evidence of the Protheans. And even less that might explain why they disappeared." Liara said.

"So someone came along and wiped the galaxy of clues. Especially that of their disappearance." I mused.

"Indeed. But here is the incredible part. According to my findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began long before them." Liara continued.

"What cycle? What are you talking about?" Shepard asked.

"The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Every time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down. Only ruins survive." Liara responded.

"So the Protheans created their massive empires by climbing on top of the ones who came before?" I asked.

"Yes. Their greatest achievements- the Mass Relays and the Citadel- are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like all other races, they vanished. I have dedicated my life to finding out why." Liara said.

"They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines. The Reapers." Shepard cut in.

"The- The Reapers? But I have never heard of- How do you know this? What evidence do you have?" Liara demanded.

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a vision into my brain. I'm still trying to sort out what it all means." Shepard responded.

"Visions? Yes that makes sense. The beacons were designed to transmit imformation directly into the mind. Finding one that works is extremely rare. No wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance to acquire a working beacon, even a badly damaged one, is worth almost any risk." Liara said.

"Yet while the beacons transmit information directly into the brain, the beacon was designed to work with a Prothean mind, which would be the cause for it being unclear." I informed Liara.

"I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong willed Commander." Liara said admiringly.

"This isn't helping us find Saren. Or the Conduit." Kaidan cut in abruptly.

"Find them? No. But think about the possibilities the beacons technology represent." I stated matter of factly.

"Thinking of turning me into a science project Wraith?" Shepard quipped before moving on. "As it is, I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture. But I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along."

"Thank you Commander. Saren might come after me again, and I believe that I will be safest here on your ship. And my knowledge might become useful later on." Liara said gratefully getting up.

"And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts." Wrex commented from his seat.

"Indeed. They might even be useful in figuring out how my suit interacts with biotics." I commented.

Shepard smiled, "Good to have you on the team Liara."

"Thank you, Commander I am very grateful- oh" Liara broke of swaying slightly. "I am afraid I am feeling a bit light headed."

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept? Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you." Kaidan said concerned.

"It is probably just some exhaustion and shock of discovering the Prothean true fate. I need some time to process all of this. Still it would not hurt to be looked over by a medical professional. Are we finished here Commander?" Liara asked.

"Go see the doctor. The rest of you... Dismissed!" Shepard ordered.

"Mission reports are filed Commander." Joker called in as every one stood up. "You want me to patch you through to the Council?"

"Patch 'em through Joker" Shepard answered as I left. I headed down the stairs before walking towards my office. Entering the office I looked around before sitting down at my computer. "SECOND... Lock and secure the room. If it's Shepard, tell me." I said.

"_**Room secured."**_

With the bug scrambler active I opened a secure channel to Derek, the head of CryTech.

"Martin! What can I do for you?" He asked cheerily.

"Two things, Derek. Firstly, I wanted to ask what happened to the beacon on Eden Prime? Was it recovered?"

"Yes. We are working with the Alliance and the Council to study it and unlock anything else we can from it. The overload was a near perfect self destruct. CRYSTAL is working on recovering the data while the rest of the science team is working to figure out how the damn thing actually works." Derek answered.

"Good. You're ahead of me there because I have reason to believe it may be the key to true brain-machine interfacing technology." I said relieved.

"Yup. We're getting all kinds of data from it. What's the second thing?"

"Well there was this incident on Therum. . ." I explained exactly what happened when I was hit with Shepard's warp and the suit's reaction.

"What? I. . . That's. . . You've _got_ to get that data over here ASAP!" Derek uttered. "That is amazing. It was only theoretical but now the possibilities..."

"I know. I'm going to try and convince Shepard to make a little detour to the Prism, since I also need to get my suit repaired. Which reminds me, we're also going to need to outfit the squad with GHOST armor. It will prevent incidents like that from happening and will give them a greater edge against our enemies." I said.

"Right. Outfit the squad. So you will be needing what? Two female and one male human sets, one male turian, one female quarian, one male krogan and one asari right?" He asked, looking past me, presumably at a screen on his end. At my nod he continued "Alright I can get their specs and have them be ready for pickup probably by the time you get here. Anything else? Or can I get the armors ready?"

"Nothing more on my end. Hopefully I'll see you soon. Duncan, out." I finished closing the comm channel. I started mentally going over the mission and not even a minute later, Shepard walked through the door into my office. "Hey Shepard," I greeted. "Take a seat." I gestured toward the chair in front of my desk.

I waited until she took her seat before continuing. "So, Liara T'soni. She seems pretty trustworthy, Although I do find it strange that the geth were trying to kill her. I would have thought that Benezia would have tried to have her captured instead of killed."

Shepard snorted. "Hah. The Council said something similar, although they weren't sure if we could trust her."

"Yes, well if you are wearing a suit that can tell a white lie as clearly as night and day you tend to be able to quickly know if you can trust someone or not." I said.

"Speaking of your nanosuit. Do we have to make a stop somewhere? Because it looks like you're suit is missing something." She said, gesturing at my chest where the Coltan-Titanium was missing.

"Yeah. I have to get the Coltan-Titanium replaced. Which brings me to another thing, think we could make a detour? I put in an order for some GHOST armor for the squad to give us a bigger advantage and hopefully prevent something like this-" I nodded down at my chest "-from happening again."

"GHOST armor? Hold on. Doesn't that cost a fortune?" Shepard asked, her face scrunched up quizzically.

"Normally yes, it would cost a fortune. But these are on the house so to speak. Free of charge. After all, CryNet is committed to the safety of the galaxy and Saren is a threat to the galaxy after all."

"Sure. We don't have any more leads on Saren at the moment and I was going to do some smaller missions I picked up-"

"Hold on Shepard. Remember what I told you? Send those missions to me. Let CryNet take care of them, it will let us concentrate on Saren and this detour would definitely help against Saren." I interrupted her.

"CryNet doesn't have to do all my work you know." Shepard said slightly irritated.

"CryNet won't be doing all your work Shepard. But you know as much as I do that we have to be at the top of our game in order to effectively fight Saren." I explained.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't like others doing my work." Shepard grumbled before sighing "Alright. So where is this detour going to take us?"

I smirked. "To the Prism. Home to CryNet headquarters and the CryNet Training and Proving Grounds."

Twelve hours later

After multiple relay jumps and a lengthy period flying at FTL the Normandy finally arrived at the Prism. I was standing behind Joker in the cockpit with the rest of the ground team standing near the windows, all interested in seeing the Prism for the first time. Joker began counting down until we would drop out of FTL "Decelerating in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

"Welcome, to the Prism." I stated gesturing towards the space station infront of the Normandy. The Prism , shaped like a large spinning top, is a massive station by most standards being four kilometers wide at its middle and five kilometers from end to end.

The entire squad exited the Normandy with me and as we did we were confronted by a group of four Inquisitors and five Phantoms. The four inquisitors were lined up on our left while four of the five Phantoms were on our right. The fifth phantom was standing directly in front of us, arms clasped behind his back.

"Wraith! Its good to see you." The Phantom standing directly in front of us spoke up, his heavy bass of a voice clearly distinguishing his identity.

"Prophet! How's it going?" I asked, walking forward and shaking Prophet's hand.

"Pretty good. Been spending time in Valhalla teaching those recruits how to fight like a Raptor." Prophet told me.

"Fighting like a Raptor eh? So no subtlety at all." I grinned. "Anyway, I should introduce everyone. So, I'm sure you guys recognize Commander Shepard, first human Spectre yadda yadda yadda. Then Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, both Alliance marines. Garrus Vakarian, ex C-Sec officer, bounty hunter Urdnot Wrex, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya our resident quarian and Liara T'Soni, our Prothean expert."

"So you abandoned you team for a Spectre eh Wraith?" Prophet asked me.

"Hell yes. Bigger explosions, Nova would love it." I chuckled. "Let me introduce you guys before Shepard here decides to drill a hole through the back of my head due to lack of courtesy." I looked back to see her reaction, which mainly consisted of her rolling her eyes followed by a stern glare.

"Normandy team, these gentlemen are Phantom team Raptor and Inquisitor team 545. Raptor team is one of the oldest Phantom teams and is the best at assaulting armored positions. Little known fact is that the original idea for the Inquisitors GHOST armor was inspired from seeing Raptor team in action."

"We only do the mission to the best of our abilities sir." One of the Raptors, Nomad, said.

"And you fulfill that duty well Nomad. Nomad is Raptor teams second in command while Prophet here is its CO. Then there's Psycho, assault specialist, Jester, Raptor's demolitionist, and Aztec its sniper." I said introducing all the Phantoms.

"As for 545 here, they are some of the few Inquisitors who aren't delegated to local enforcement all of the time, instead they act in a similar fashion to the Phantoms, minus the subtlety, something that Raptor team actually lacks." I glanced over at the Phantoms in question.

"What?" Psycho asked throwing his arms out, his heavy British accent audible even through the nanosuit's voice modulator. "If you want subtlety send in Serpent. Those girls will destroy an entire base without the guards even knowing that they're dead."

"That is true. Now then, for 545 there's Stratosphere there, he's the human with the red highlights." I said nodding over to to Stratosphere.

"Then Beserker is the one next to him with the orange highlights. If you've heard of the old Norse beserkers, you'll know what he's capable of." I said nodding at him.

"A beserker? I haven't read much of human history and can't say I've heard of them before." Liara spoke up.

"Beserkers were old Norse warriors that are said to have fought in an uncontrollable, trance like rage, very similar to a krogan in a bloodrage." Shepard explained.

"And you had humans like that?" Garrus asked with a mix of shock and intrigue.

"Centuries ago, yes. It was way back before humans had developed gun powder for projectile weaponry." Shepard allowed.

"I imagine it would have been fun to fight one of them." Wrex said.

"You may have your chance with Beserker here." I told him.

"Bring it on!" Beserker thumped his chest.

"Heh. Anyway, the turian with the blue highlights is Praetor, pretty proficient with a sniper rifle and a biotic."

"I'll definitely be rooting for you Beserker, show that krogan who's boss." Praetor crossed his arms sizing up Wrex.

"Now now, no need to be fighting just yet people. I haven't introduced Surgeon yet." I admonished before continuing. "Surgeon is the drell with the green highlights. Surgeon is also a fairly good-."

"_Very_ good sniper." Surgeon interrupted me.

"-You still can't beat me on a bad day Surgeon." I smirked "So until you do that you will stay a good sniper."

"One of these days Wraith." Surgeon retorted.

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you." Shepard finally broke in, bringing us to the reason why we were here. "But can we get on with this? I want to be able to go at any time."

"Right, if you will follow me, I'll take you to the armory." I said making my way out of the docking bay where the Normandy was docked towards the Armory. Shepard fell in on my right side while Prophet, Psycho and Nomad fell in on my left side. The rest of the squad mingled with the 545th and the rest of Raptor where they exchanged good natured banter.

"So Wraith, I noticed that your suit was damaged. Getting old eh?" Psycho asked me.

I laughed. "Nah. Just a little misunderstanding that ended up with me getting hit by one hell of a warp. By the way," I turned towards Shepard, "Did I ever say that your warp packs one hell of a punch?"

"No. I think you had other things on you're mind at the time." She said wryly.

"So a little misunderstanding led to you getting hit by Shepard's warp?" Prophet asked.

"So you cloaked and Shepard didn't know you were there resulting in friendly fire." Nomad deduced.

"Pretty much. So now I have to get the Coltan-Titanium replaced along with figure out what the suit is doing."

"The suit is doing what?" Psycho asked.

"Yeah, it appears to be trying to find a defense against biotics." I told him.

"Let me get this straight... You got hit by a warp, which caused some hefty damage to the suit and now its trying to figure out how to defend against it." Psycho said slowly. "Why didn't we try warping the suit before?"

"Good question." I muttered, glancing back at where Wrex was chuckling at something someone said. "Honestly the main reason is that we knew that biotics could be extremely damaging to the suit. So we have the simulator recreate the effect without it actually doing damage."

"Well, you certainly seem to have quite the setup here if you are able to replicate biotic attacks." Shepard said impressed.

"It is the most advanced training facility in the galaxy as of now." I stated.

"Oh? And how does it work?"

"It uses a combination of kinetic barriers, holographics, and precise mass effect field manipulation to create an environment and if necessary, hostiles to fight. But in order to correctly gauge various environmental effects on our weapons, as well as make it a safe environment in order to train with other people, we use specialized weapons that fire lasers. These lasers are caught by receptors in order to see where they hit. Then the-" I hesitated looking back at Tali before continuing in a low voice "The AI in charge of the training, CABAL, calculates the effects of gravity, air resistance, wind etc. along with the locations of the people in the simulator to accurately tell what you hit. The weapons are designed in such a way so that they behave exactly like the real weapon would.

Various abilities are recreated by the simulator to have accurate effects on targets without actually being the real abilities. Using biotics for example, the special amp that the wearer uses in the simulator only sends a signal to CABAL, informing it that the user wants to use a specific attack based on a library of various muscle mnemonics. CABAL will then create a holographic representation of the biotic and if it hits the target will have a similar effect as a real biotic attack would. The exception to this would be in the case of a warp or other biotic attack that deals actual damage to the target. Here CABAL will still create the holographic representation of the attack, yet when it hits the target it will not do anything except show that the target was hit by it. This will simulate an injury that will have to be addressed. Injuries simulated by CABAL will cause movement inhibitions. For instance if you get shot in the leg you won't be able to properly use that leg." I finished my lengthy explanation only to have Shepard ask another question.

"What about hand-to-hand combat? You seem to like hand-to-hand so you must have a way of sparring without hurting each other."

"We do indeed. Knives, daggers and other melee weapons are recreated in holographic and kinetic form giving us a representation of the weapon. The simulation will reduce the power behind each attack so that we can't actually harm each other, however we will still feel the impact to some degree. The same goes for fists and hands, the power behind them will be reduced, yet if for instance a hit would cause the target to go flying, the simulation will cause the target to go flying through the use of Mass Effect field manipulation."

Shepard looked impressed at the end of my explanation "Well, I can see why you say it's the most advanced training facility in the galaxy. It must be like being out in the field when you're in there."

"That it is. The Phantoms and Inquisitors spend as much of their time in Valhalla as they can." Prophet told her.

"Valhalla?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, it's a nickname. The facilities full name is CryNet Training And Proving grounds, CNTAP for short, but the average person doesn't want to call it CNTAP. As such, most of us just call it Valhalla." Psycho explained.

"Very interesting. I'd love to see it in action sometime." Shepard said.

"Which you will. After you get suited up you are going in the simulator. You have to get used to the armor first as it is very different than any other armor you've worn before." I told her, slowing to a stop outside of the armory where the GHOST armor was waiting. "You should get suited up. The techs will be helping you with it. I need to get my suit repaired. I'll join up with you later." After shaking Prophet's hand one more time I left to go to the Nanosuit lab. A short tram ride later, I had reached the labs where I was greeted by various scientists and technicians all ready for me. As I didn't need to be in the suit for the repairs I began to take it off. It took a good half hour before the suit was fully removed. As is normal when taking off the suit it felt like I was coming off of a massive sugar rush. When that feeling had passed I handed the suit to the techs and put on my 'director's' suit.

My director's suit was black with a red CryNet symbol stamped on the right side of my chest. Stepping on a tram, I headed back to CNTAP to observe the simulations going on there as well as wait for Shepard to arrive. I arrived at the observation room for the area where Shepard would be training. Here I was confronted with multiple screens showing me the state of the simulation going on at the moment.

"Ah, greetings _Director._" A voice spoke up accompanied by the hologram of a blue human face.

"CABAL." I greeted the AI.

"I am most surprised to be seeing you here right now. I thought that you were. . . not available."

"If you mean Wraith working with Shepard you are correct. But she and the rest of the squad require better armor."

"Oh how wonderful. I've heard much about the famous Commander Shepard. She might be better than some of this lot." CABAL nodded back towards one of the screens.

"Oh? Who's training?" I asked.

"Bah, if you can call it training. The graduating Phantom Class are doing an assault mission. Look at them. _Pathetic_. Untrained monkeys could do better." CABAL scoffed as I shifted my view to the screens where a large krogan and a human were going at it with no holds barred.

"No one can measure up to your standards, CABAL." I told him.

"Then they will have to try harder."

I chuckled slightly. "It looks like they are doing fairly well at the moment."

CABAL smirked. "I'll have to do something about that now won't I?"

"What are you doing CABAL?"

"Oh nothing much. Just altering the variables slightly."

Raising an eyebrow, I turned my attention to the various monitors where the recruits were securing a pirate ship, having assaulted it. I listened to the radio chatter from the recruits.

"_Predator, this is Mammoth. Area is secure. Moving on with Devastator."_

"_Copy that Mammoth, Venom and I will meet you near the reactor. Scorpion, what's you're current situation?"_

"_I've successfully infiltrated the reactor room. Multiple hostiles."_

"_Copy that Scorpion, received the tac-map. Hold position, stay covert."_

"_Affirmative. I'll be- ugh!"_ Scorpion's transmission was interrupted by a grunt of pain. Glancing over at the monitors that showed Scorpion's view and status I saw that he had been knocked out by a blow to the head from a krogan wearing GHOST armor. Raising an eyebrow in sunrise I noticed that another monitor had sprung to life showing this krogan.

"_Scorpion report! What is your status? Scorpion! Do you read?" _Predator shouted over the comm.

"_His suit shows that he's unconscious!" _Venom said.

"_Damnit! Everyone get over there now! We have a man down! Move!" _

As the trainees rushed to the reactor I turned towards CABAL "So by slightly altering the variables you sent in Destroyer?"

"Of course. It should prove to be very interesting." He said smugly.

"That's one way of putting it." I muttered turning my attention back to the monitors.

"_Alright guys. Form up and breach on my mark."_ Predator was ordering and the Phantoms all got into position.

Glancing over at Destroyer's screen I saw that he was waiting on a catwalk right above the door that the Phantoms would be breaching through.

Suddenly the door blew open as the Phantoms had planted a breaching charge in the meantime. Destroyer didn't even seem to twitch as the explosion echoed around the chamber. Even before the sound from the explosion died out the Phantoms flooded into the room to find Scorpion being held captive by four soldiers wearing medium armor. The soldiers however were still reeling from the explosion and as such made easy targets for the nanosuit wearing Phantoms.

Predator, Mammoth and Devastator did a quick sweep of the room as Venom went to check in on the unconscious Scorpion. Never once did the Phantoms look up. It was then that Destroyer sprang into action. Grabbing a frag grenade from his armor, he primed it and threw it in the midst of the Phantoms.

"_GRENADE!"_ One of the Phantoms shouted as they all scattered. Venom was caught in the explosion as he tried to pull Scorpion out of the blast radius. Even as the grenade detonated, Destroyer jumped down from the catwalk drawing his Graal spike thrower in the process. Aiming it he fired at Venom who had been thrown off his feet by the grenade. The heavy spikes, designed to pierce the heavy plating of a thresher maw's hide, tore straight through Venom's suit, killing him.

With a roar of rage, Mammoth charged Destroyer, only to be smacked aside. Landing heavily on the ground, another round from Destroyer's spike thrower finished him off. Now two on one, Destroyer turned to where the remaining two Phantoms had been standing only to find them gone, having cloaked while he dealt with Mammoth. Glaring around he began to shout _"Come out you cowards! Show yourselves!" _

"_As you wish." _Predator answered materializing infront of Destroyer and knocking his Spike thrower out of his hands. Even as the shotgun was still flying Predator threw himself into a backward roll bringing his Marshall shotgun to bear he opened fire, on the hulking krogan.

Destroyer roared in rage as he pulled out his CTA-40 Mod 0 medium machine gun and opened fire on Predator. Diving to the side, Predator rolled behind a support column, giving him protection from the angry onslaught of fire. Unknown to Destroyer who was bent on killing Predator, Devastator had uncloaked behind him with two AECs and threw them at the krogan's back. Rolling backward he detonated the charges, the resulting explosion engulfed Destroyer.

"Mission complete. Three casualties. Pathetic." CABAL announced as the simulation ended, the holograms fading away and allowing the downed Phantoms and Inquisitor to stand up.

Glancing at a pedestal on the right side of the room I asked "CARLA, whats the ETA on Shepard's arrival?"

A blue holographic woman appeared on the pedestal "Five minutes sir."

"Thank you CARLA." I hesitated. "Don't reveal yourselves to the squad please guys. I'm worried about Tali. As a quarian she probably wouldn't be all that thrilled to know that she is on a station filled with AI's and is going to be trained by one."

"A quarian? Pathetic." CABAL sneered.

I sighed, "I know you don't like quarians CABAL, but don't take it out on her."

"Fine." CABAL said shortly, his face vanishing from his monitor.

I turned to look at CARLA who was smirking at me. "Don't worry about us sir. I'll let the others know not to reveal themselves."

"Thank you CARLA." I sighed as I walked over to the windows overlooking one of the simulation rooms and clasped my hands behind my back as I waited for the Shepard to arrive. As I waited, I pondered the performance of the Phantom recruits in the simulation. They performed rather well, up to the reactor room where they made the critical error of not checking the catwalks near the top of the room, followed by Mammoth getting himself killed by rushing Destroyer after loosing Venom. My mind drifted to what their team name would be as they would be graduating at the end of the year.

Phantom training lasted for two years, the first of which they only trained against simulated enemies under the control of CABAL. Only in the second year would they start going up against real Inquisitors and Phantoms. Only at their graduation would they get to learn their team name. Up until then they were called by their recruit group, or class, number.

I was pulled from my thoughts by the sound of multiple pairs of heavy footsteps entering the room. Once they settled down I turned to face the newcomers. "Ah, Commander Shepard. It is nice to finally meet you in person. Operative Wraith has told me many good things about you." I said stepping forward to shake Shepard's hand.

Shepard, along with the rest of the squad were now fully armored in top of the line GHOST armor, only their heads visible as they were all carrying their helmets.

"Likewise Director." She answered taking my hand.

"I trust you are satisfied with your new armor?" I asked looking over the squad. Shepard's armor was black, with red highlights and lights along with the N7 logo over her right breast. Kaidan and Ashley's armor were both Alliance blue, Kaidan's highlights being yellow while Ashley's being white. Liara's armor was white and sky blue. Garrus was wearing his navy blue turian GHOST armor. The turian GHOST armor was quite different from the human and asari GHOST armor, in that it included heavier Coltan-Titanium armoring than the human versions, which needed the extra mobility. Wrex's dark red and black armor almost completely encased the hulking krogan in Coltan-Titanium, giving off a true impression of a walking tank. Finally Tali's purple and black armor, retained some of the form of the standard quarian suits, only with more armored plating and nanoweave covering the exposed parts.

"Well, we have to test them out before we can say whether they are any good." Shepard responded.

I nodded once. "Indeed. And that is why you are here Commander. May I present to you, the CryNet Training And Proving grounds." I turned waving my hands at the various monitors that sprung to life showing off the simulations going on right now, along with the one empty room that Shepard and the squad would be training in.

_A/N: Alright, first time to the Prism, and we see the first few submitted Inquisitors. _

_Inquisitor team 545 was submitted by Strat545 and Destroyer was submitted by TheUltraGrand, so thanks to both of them for their submissions. The rest of you who submitted, don't worry. You're characters will be making their appearance._

_We also meet Raptor team! Just for reference, the top three Phantom teams are Raven, Raptor and Serpent. As you may have realized from the conversation with Raptor, Raptor is a heavy hitting team, less focused on the stealth aspect of the Nanosuit while Serpent (Who we haven't met yet but I have something big planned for them) are the stealthy ones. _

_Then we meet two of the AI's and another one gets referenced._

_CABAL (Crynet Advanced Battlefield Assessment Logarithm). CABAL is the one who controls the Simulator. He's able to accurately represent hostiles to such accuracy so much that he can accurately add in organic factors when controlling holographic organics. Alternately when controlling synthetics like the geth then he can accurately portray their intelligence loss as more geth die. And CABAL does not like the quarians as you may have guessed due to them trying to wipe out the geth just because they gained sentience. Points to those of you who can guess who CABAL is based off of. (Hint same name and both are AI's)._

_CARLA (Crynet Analysis Reallocation and Logistics Advisor). Carla is CryOps logistics AI. She's the one who handles the day to day business within CryOps that Duncan (Wraith) cant or doesn't want to handle. While she can't order Inquisitors and Phantoms around without approval from a CryNet Director (most of the time Duncan) she is vital to the continued operation of CryOps._

_CRYSTAL (Crynet Rapidly Yielding Special Technology Advisor for Labs). CRYSTAL is CryTechs research AI. She's the one who will run simulations and help doing research for CryTech. Without her CryTech research would be pretty slow. _

_There are two more AI's that have yet to be mentioned, CEDA and CRISTINE. _

_CEDA (Crynet Engineering and Development Advisor). CEDA is CryTech's logistics AI._

_CRISTINE (Crynet Intelligence and Source Tracking INterfacE). CRISTINE is CryTell's AI. She handles all the information that flows through CryTell and alerts the necessary personnel (like CryTell Director Axel Petersen) to important information._

_Finally, I've meant to do this a while ago. I've uploaded a bunch of screenshots and pictures of some of the more important characters for NE on Photobucket. They are under various subalbums so make sure to look for those. I have Wraith, Shepard, the CryNet Board, raven Team and CABAL there. You can find them here (remove the spaces): s1321. Beta. Photobucket DOT com user/LEGION001/library/Nano%20Effect_

___Then you can find me on twitter if you want updates on NE stuff. I'm LEGION001. Twitter DOT com /LEGION001 _

_And I think that that's it. If you have any questions don't hesitate to Review or PM me. Reviews giving constructive feedback are appreciated. _

_See you in two weeks on the 2nd!_

_~LEGION_


	9. Chapter 9: Pinnacle of Defense

_Disclaimer: If I owned Crysis and Mass Effect I wouldn't be writing Fanfiction now would I? (I don't own them)_

_Thanks to DN7 for Betaing as usual._

* * *

_**Shepard's PoV**_

It didn't take long for Shepard, followed by the rest of the squad, to be led down to the simulation room by a CryNet employee. Wraith, or rather the Director would be watching them perform in the monitoring room. The employee, who had introduced himself as James Powell, came to a stop at a large door labeled with the Greek letter, Theta.

"This is your simulation station Commander. Armory is just through these doors. Please only use those weapons as they are the training weapons for use in the simulation. We don't want to fill the room full of holes after all. Once you've chosen your weapons continue on through the door on the far side of the room which will take you into the simulation room. You can customize your simulation there or have it randomly generated."

Shepard shook his hand, "Thank you, Mr. Powell."

"No problem Ma'am. Good luck in there."

Shepard turned to her squad "Well, let's see what they have in their armory here eh?"

"I hope that they have a good sniper rifle." Garrus commented.

"I'm sure they will have something to your tastes Garrus." Tali responded.

Ashley, who had entered the armory first slowed to a stop just inside the doors before turning around with a wide smile on her face. "I think they will have something for you Garrus."

As the rest of the squad entered, Shepard let out a long whistle."Well, they certainly don't skimp on the weaponry now do they?" The armory contained various weapon racks, all containing different weapons types. On the wall that held the door they had just walked through, the right side was lined with submachine guns from top to bottom while the left side held assault rifles. The wall across from them which held the exit door was similarly stocked, the left holding heavy weapons and the right pistols. The left wall of the room held shotguns and the right stored sniper rifles.

"Damn, they really have everything here. I haven't seen a Mattock in ages. It went out of service years ago." Kaidan exclaimed looking at the assault rifle section.

"You used one of the M-96's LT?" Ashley asked curious.

"Yeah, it was the only assault rifle I ever felt comfortable with. Unfortunately they went out of service years ago and I just stuck with using heavy pistols."

"Well, I'll see if we can't get you a Mattock." Shepard told him.

"No need to Shepard. A pistol is fine for me."

"Nonsense, I'll get you a Mattock. I can't have you just go in combat against the geth with just a pistol now can I?"

"Well thanks, Commander." Kaiden replied as he grabbed the rifle and began to check it over as Shepard looked over the rest of the available assault rifles with Ashley.

"I think that I'm going to go with one of their SCAR's myself." Shepard mused as she got to the CryTech Armory section of the wall, "I hope that it is able to do its little mode switching like Wraith's."

"Normally I would agree with you Skipper and take one as well, but I think I'm going to go with one of these Grendels. It look's like it could do quite a bit of damage." Ashley said regarding a heavy assault rifle.

"Why's that?" Shepard asked looking over at her.

"Apparently it's a three round burst fire assault rifle and each shot hits about as hard as a Mattock. The recoil means that its only good in medium to close ranges, though it does have a semi-automatic fire mode for those precision shots." Ashley explained.

"Well that does sound nice. I might try one of those out later." Shepard said, grabbing a SCAR from the rack. "Hello, what have we here?" As she lifted the weapon from it's rack, a holographic screen popped up on the SCAR showing various options for customization. "Modifications eh? CryNet really thought of everything."

"They certainly did." Garrus said walking up to join Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan at the assault rifle racks.

"Garrus. Have fun looking at the sniper rifles?" Shepard asked.

"Did you know that they have an M-98 Widow and a Krysae?" He asked.

Kaidan looked up at Garrus, "I'm not familiar with a Krysae. What is it?"

"It's a turian anti-materiel rifle. It fires a dual armor-piercing and explosive round designed to penetrate the armor of vehicles and detonate inside, dealing maximum damage." Garrus explained.

"Nice. I think that that's the rifle for me, so if you'll excuse me, I need to grab that and check out their boomsticks." Ashley grabbed a Grendel from the rack and left for the sniper rifle section.

"Heh, she knows what she wants thats for sure." Wrex said coming up from behind to look at some of the heavier weapons.

"Well Wrex, I suppose you've got your shotgun then?" Garrus asked.

"Of course. They had quite a few of em there. Even had a Graal, but I'm sticking with a Claymore."

"Anything else interesting?" Shepard inquired.

"Well they had their own shotguns there as well. One of them was a full-auto shotgun. Not bad, not bad at all."

"Hmm. I'll have a look at those then. I'll probably stick with a Marshall though. I've been using that ever since I bought it and its pretty damn good." Shepard said, holstering her SCAR, having decided to mess with its mods later.

"Doing alright Tali?" She asked as she joined Tali at the shotgun racks.

"Oh, yes. I'm trying to decide which shotgun I should take."

Shepard looked over at her, "Do you have any preferences?"

"Well the Jackal would be perfect for clearing out a large number of clumped up Geth with it's high fire rate while the Marshall would be perfect for taking out the heavier geth units with its high damage."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at Tali's choice of adversaries. "You could take a Leopard you know. It looks like it would be fairly good in all situations."

"Well yes, but I think I might need the dedication from either the Marshall or the Jackal instead of the lack of dedication from the Leopard."

"Well, I honestly think that the Leopard would be perfect for you Tali. Why don't you take that and if you don't like it you can switch later." Shepard suggested.

"I suppose I could do that. Yes, that sounds good. I wonder how the entire facility works. It would be so interesting to see."

Shepard smiled at Tali's excitement "Well, we will be taking part in a simulation soon. You can see for yourself."

"True, but its not the same as seeing the inner workings."

"I'll take your word for it Tali. Do you have a pistol picked out?" Shepard asked pulling out a Marshall and attached it to her lower back.

Tali shook her head "Not yet. I decided to pick out my shotgun first."

Shepard patted her on the shoulder "Well then, let's go and join Liara." She said, guiding the quarian towards the pistol racks.

Liara turned towards them as they arrived, "Hello Shepard."

"Hey Liara, picking out a pistol?"

The asari nodded "Yes. But I don't really need that many weapons because I can just use my biotics."

"That is true, but I'd still suggest you take a Pistol and a SMG just in case. You never want to be without a backup weapon." Shepard advised.

"Yes, I already chose a SMG." She showed Shepard the SMG she had taken, "A Feline I believe. It looks to be a good weapon."

Shepard examined it before returning it, "It sure does. That's a good SMG there. I think that I'm going to go without an SMG." She said, pausing as she noticed a pistol in the rack, "However I _will_ be taking this monster." She grabbed a heavy pistol from the rack examining it with glee. "A revolver? Six heat sinks. All revolving? One shot per heat sink? Massive damage? I think I'm in love. Its official, CryNet makes the best weapons as far as I'm concerned." She announced loudly.

"_The CTA-14 Majestic. I thought you might like that pistol. Would you also consider saying that again so I can use it in our next advertising campaign? Having humanities first Spectre endorsing our weapons would be an excellent opportunity."_ The directors voice sounded over the speakers. "_You'd be compensated naturally. Maybe you would like some weapons from our armory? Get your own Majestic?"_

"While that is extremely tempting, it will have to wait until later. For now, I am _so_ going to enjoy using this monster."

"_Well, I'll make sure there are some targets to use it against. Just a reminder though, remember to set your GHOST armor to training and sync it with our training VI CABAL."_

_'VI?'_ Shepard thought _'Didn't Wraith say CABAL was an AI?'_ out loud however Shepard gave no reaction to her internal dilemma.

"_Also, remember that your first few simulations will be just to get you used to the GHOST armor. It is unlike anything you have ever used before, and you need proper training before we let you loose in the simulator."_

Shepard spent a bit more time modifying her chosen weapons and making sure that the GHOST armor was in training mode and synced to CABAL. When she had finished modding her Marshall with a medium barrel, high caliber rounds and a high capacity heat sink along with slapping a high velocity mod into her Majestic she joined the rest of the squad at the door leading on to the simulation room. After exchanging weapon choices, the squad walked through the door to find a large room, devoid of any terrain, with various training equipment.

Before anyone could do anything more but look, a rather excited voice sounded over the comm, _"Ah, Commander Shepard! My name is Nathan Gould. So nice to- well not really meet you per say, but I will be your trainer for today, going to get you up to speed on all the suits functions."_

Almost immediately after an older, more regal voice cut in _"What my colleague is trying to say, __is that GHOST armor is very advanced and we are here to make sure you can use it to its fullest potential. But I haven't introduced myself. Bill Walker."_

"Pleased to meet you." Shepard responded.

Ashley took the time to ask a question, "Do we really need trainers just to figure out how to use the armor?"

"_I can understand your confusion, but you fail to realize, that even right now your armor is not running at full power. It's merely providing enough power so that you don't crumple under its weight. When we unlock its true potential, well... That will require some adjustment."_ Walker answered.

"_Yes, you see when it's fully powered up the muscle fiber will be augmenting your strength by about 200%. While it feels like you are wearing heavy armor right now, when unlocked it will be like you are wearing nothing at all. Your most basic moves can and will throw you off completely. Not to mention there are many other features that you are not yet aware of." _Gould continued.

Shepard nodded, "So if for instance we throw a punch with the armor fully powered we might unbalance ourselves due to its strength?"

"_Exactly. You could even tear ligaments, separate various joints, or even completely shatter your own bones if you don't adapt to the rapid increase in reaction and strength granted by the armor. Now usually our Inquisitor trainees spend a whole week on learning the ins and outs of their own armor, but since we are rather short on time we should probably get you guys powered up if that's alright with you?" _Gould asked.

Glancing back at her squad Shepard shrugged and nodded, "I'd say we're ready to go."

"_Right then. Let's get you juiced up."_ Walker said and within a few moments the GHOST armor powered up and engaged its HUD. With her HUD engaged Shepard was able to access an incredible amount information in moments. The shield and armor integrity levels of the entire squad was displayed on the bottom of her visor, along with their currently drawn weapons. In the bottom left corner is a small map, that at the moment only displayed the locations of the rest of her squad in relation to herself. In the bottom right corner of her visor was a heat gauge, showing her that her weapon was in fact, cold. Not only had her HUD engaged, but Shepard, and judging by the surprised noises, the rest of her squad noticed an immediate change in how their armor felt. Whereas before the armor behaved more like heavy armor, now it was as light as a feather and barely noticeable.

"_Excellent, I am reading green on all of your systems._" Gould told them _"Take a few steps, get a feel for it."_

Taking a step forward, Shepard was surprised by how effortless it was to walk around, indeed feeling as if she were wearing light clothing instead of several hundred pounds of armor. Throwing a test punch she was surprised by how fast her hand flew through the air. It was then that she realized that her arm was almost fully extended and her fist was still flying through the air. When her arm was fully extended the force of the punch threw her forward, straining her shoulder and causing her to stumble in an attempt to not fall over.

Gould chuckled, _"As you can see, it requires a bit of time to get used to the suits strength and reaction enhancements."_

"You can say that again." Shepard grumbled, rolling her arm around to get rid of the minor pain. "Can we get some punching bags or something in here?"

"_Certainly."_ Walker stated and suddenly multiple punching bags and even some human shaped targets appeared in front of them.

"I'm not sure I'm even in a simulation." Garrus grumbled as he tentatively poked a punching bag, causing it swing slightly.

Shepard chuckled. "Same. It looks so real."

Taking up a position in front of a punching bag, Shepard threw a couple punches, each time causing the bag to swing wildly. After a few hits, Shepard was able to get a better handle on her punches, no longer over extending and loosing her balance after each one.

"_I must say Commander, I am impressed. Not many get used to the armor that quickly."_ Gould commented. _"Interesting, why don't you try out some punches on those human targets over there, see how hard you are hitting them and try to onlyknock them out."_

After punching a couple of the targets , which went flying off of their feet the first few times until Shepard was able to reign in her strength to only knock them out which the simulation showed by greying them out. By that time everyone else had gotten used to the strength somewhat and they moved on to the mobility aspect of the armor. Gould and Walker gave them various tasks to do, ranging from jumping up onto a small crate (which was rather difficult at first as everyone was jumping over it) to jumping up onto a two meter high crate. With that done, they were told how to engage the suits overdrive mode, which would allow them to sprint at some very fast speeds for around minute. In between exercises, Gould explained how Inquisitors would go through much more thorough training by doing mundane things like jumping rope, playing hopscotch, or even juggling eggs.

After practicing a couple of combat rolls and maneuvers, Gould and Walker had them run an obstacle course, using the GHOST armor to the best of their abilities. Shepard was able to ace the course which impressed Gould to no end _"I am very impressed now Commander. I don't think anyone has mastered the use of the GHOST armor that quickly."_

"What about the Nanosuit?" Shepard asked him.

"_Well, that one is harder to tell, because while operative Wraith did master the nanosuit very quickly, it was the Nanosuit 1 and he had used the prototype before. But then again, the Nanosuit is harder to master as the GHOST armor is basically a simplified version of the Nanosuit."_

When their two trainers had decided they were done with the mobility aspect they went on to the combat aspects of the armor, ranging from accuracy to various abilities. These ranged from the VI link between the squad to various abilities taught to the individual squad mates themselves. In order to learn these abilities the squad was separated and was assigned their own trainer. Shepard was assigned to an asari by the name of Lufirr Ekeassy who began to show her some new biotic abilities.

"_What I'm going to show you next is a little ability we call 'biotic charge'. This is a brand new ability that Alpha Tech and Sciences will be releasing with their next biotic amp within a year. It is very handy at closing the distance between you and your target very quickly, however can put you in the middle of hostiles as well so watch yourself. Alternately if you get skilled enough with it you can use it to rapidly move around the battlefield or retreat from a bad situation."_

Shepard was impressed. "Sounds interesting. How do you do it?"

"_Excited huh?"_ Lufirr laughed. _"Don't worry, so was I when I first learned it. Here's what you have to do. . ."_

It didn't take long for Shepard to be charging across the simulation room in a blur of biotic energy, slamming aside dummies in her reckless dashes across the room.

Lufirr was very impressed by her fast learning however cautioned her saying _"Now while using 'biotic charge' in the simulator works pretty much the same as it does outside of the __simulator, we are unable to accurately fake fatigue from biotics. You will no doubt find that charging around like that will be very draining and I definitely suggest you don't rely on it too much or you won't be able to continue your missions due to fatigue."_

"Thanks for the tip."

After getting used to the increased power from her biotic abilities, putting her on par with the Alliance biotic adepts in terms of power, Shepard was rejoined by the rest of her squad who had learned various new things as well. Ashley had been shown how to increase her reaction time and overclock her kinetic barriers for a short period of time to give her an edge in weapons combat. Kaidan had been shown some new tech and biotic abilities as well as how to throw them with both arms. Garrus had been shown how to steady his sniping arm and get important information on his target, allowing for increased sniping capability. Wrex had mainly learned how to get the most out of his krogan armor and how to permanently increase his kinetic barrier power at the cost of rerouting power from his nanoweave, taking away some of his mobility. Liara had been shown an entirely new arsenal of biotic abilities, ranging from deploying a large biotic sphere to protect allies to a heavy shockwave ability able to knock swaths of enemies off their feet. Finally Tali quickly learned how to use the VI to be better at hacking and learned how to drain a targets energy reserves to restore her own shields. Shepard had no doubt that Tali would come up with some more abilities to use as soon as she could.

"_Well, I suppose you are ready for some action."_ Gould told them _"CABAL, run training simulation delta-nine." _

Immediately the simulator changed from its bleak training room to a massive outdoor area. The squad was standing on a path leading through a large forest. Even as the squad got used to their new surroundings Gould gave them their objective _"Alright Commander. This is an easy one. Find and eliminate all enemy targets. Mission begins now."_

Shepard immediately slipped into her commander role, "No time for sight seeing guys. Engage VI link."

"_**Tactical VI online. Linking with squad. . . Link complete. Displaying tactical data now."**_

The VI's voice sounded as her HUD popped in. The VI sounded more human than SECOND, Wraith's nanosuit VI/AI, yet it was still distinctly synthetic.

When her HUD had finished initializing, Shepard immediately started ordering her squad around. The GHOST armor VI made this incredibly easy to do, she merely had to give a verbal order and the VI would instantly recognize what she said and what she meant, sending the orders to the squad's HUDs. This allowed her to quickly and efficiently order her squad forward, in a leapfrog style. Finally after a few minutes without seeing any hostiles Shepard noticed movement. Even while snapping her SCAR up to her shoulder the VI warned them of the approaching pirate hostiles along with marking hostile targets with a red triangle over their heads.

"Take them out!" She shouted beginning to belt out various orders that the VI also sent to their HUD's. "Garrus! Get into an overwatch position. Kaidan and Wrex, suppressing fire! Keep their heads down! Tali and Liara, hit them from the side. Ashley with me."

The entire squad sprung into action, Wrex began laying down a hail of fire from his CTA-40 mod 0 LMG. Garrus used the time to snipe a single target before getting in cover a ways back where he could effectively take out the pirates. Tali and Liara joined up and began flanking to the right keeping low and behind cover to keep the pirates from noticing them. Kaidan had immediately begun throwing down a barrage of biotic throws and pulls from both of his hands. This allowed him to force the pirates to stay out of sight behind cover or be thrown out into the open to be taken out by the rest of the squad.

Charging out of cover, Shepard circled around to the left so that they could surround the pirates and quickly wipe them out. Once in position, Shepard and Ashley paused for a second while Shepard coordinated with Tali and Liara on the other side of the enemy position.

"Tali, Liara. Are you in position?"

"_We're here Shepard. Waiting on your signal."_ Tali responded.

"Alright, this is what I want you to do. Tali, Kaidan, on my signal take down their shields. Liara once their shields are down I want you to lay down a singularity. I'll then warp the singularity, the resulting explosion should disorient them. Wrex and I will charge into the middle of them, so watch your fire. Kaidan, Liara, I want you to then start pulling them out into the open to allow Ash and Garrus to take them out without worrying about us. Tali, continue hitting them with tech attacks, but make sure you don't hit us. Got that everyone?"

While she had been voicing her orders the VI had been sending said orders to the squad and when they all voiced their acknowledgment Shepard's HUD indicated that they had received and acknowledged by marking them with a green checkmark. When the entire squad had acknowledged, Shepard leaned out of her cover and said "Execute."

Immediately a large shower of sparks jumped from target to target, taking down their shields instantly. Not two seconds later a large singularity appeared in the middle of the bunched up humans, dragging the now shieldless pirates out of cover. Glowing blue, Shepard launched a high powered warp straight into the singularity. When the two conflicting biotics hit, they detonated in a spectacular explosion sending all the pirates flying. Not giving her biotics a chance to die down, Shepard concentrated for a second before releasing a shout as she propelled herself towards a human that was still alive. Slamming into him just as he was getting up she sent him flying into a tree headfirst with a sickening crunch. A similar crunch signaled Wrex's arrival followed by a roar as he slammed a turian aside, using his Claymore as a club. Shepard quickly drew her Majestic and fired it at a human pirate. The high powered round tore through the unshielded pirate's head.

Three biotic orbs hit three different pirates dragging them both up and away from Shepard and Wrex where they were gunned down by Garrus and Ashley. A flash of white signaled Tali flash freezing a single merc who immediately shattered as someone fired a single shot into the brittle body. Spinning around Shepard gave a nanoweave enhanced kick to the head of an asari snapping her head back and causing her to cartwheel through the air before landing on a turian who was knocked down and had his head smashed in by Wrex's foot. Rolling to the side Shepard fired another shot from her Majestic that ripped a humans arm clean off. Finishing him off with a punch to the face she wreathed herself in biotics to deflect a burst from a turian who was instantly pulled up by Kaidan and sent flying by a throw from Liara. Spinning around Shepard looked for a new target only to see that all the pirates were already dead.

"_Most impressive Commander."_ The Director said as the simulation faded away. _"Most impressive indeed. I see that Operative Wraith was not lying when he talked about your prowess. Now let's up the stakes a bit and see how you will fare against Inquisitor team 545."_

* * *

_A/N: Well that's done. We get to see the Simulator in action and Shepard seems to like the Majestic. For those of you that have that DLC in ME3, think Executioner with 6 shots._

_We also see NE's Nathan gould._

_Next chapter we see a faceoff between Shepard's squad and 545. _

_Finally anyone else play the Crysis 3 beta? I personally am LOVING it. I have yet to get tired at it and I'm actually fairly good at it which is surprising. Hunter mode is great, really tense. I have a feeling that we will be seeing some of that in a CNTAP simulations later down the road. . ._

_Anyway there will be one more chapter on the Prism after which we will get back to ME events. _

_As always, constructive criticism is welcomed. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me in a review or PM and I'll try to answer em!_

_Anyway I'm excited for Crysis 3. As it is I'll be seeing you in two weeks on the 16th the week before Crysis 3 comes out!_

_~LEGION_


	10. Chapter 10: Spectre vs Inquisitor

_Disclaimer: I Don't own Mass Effect or Crysis. It sucks I know._

_A/N: Thanks to DN7 for his betaing _

**Wraith POV**

"Lets see how you will fare against Inquisitor Team 545."I was very interested in seeing how Shepard and 545 would perform. While Shepard's squad outnumbered 545, they weren't as experienced as the active Inquisitor squad. Only three of Shepard's squad, excluding Shepard herself, were experienced fighters. While Garrus had been in the turian military, I imagined that he wasn't at his prime after all those years at C-Sec. Tali and Liara on the other hand were completely inexperienced in combat. Tali was very young, on her pilgrimage and while she was no doubt taught some combat skills before she left she would be no match for an Inquisitor. Liara was in a similar position, having been an archeologist, and while she was trying her hardest to learn she didn't have the experience of the rest.

Yet Shepard was something else. I had no doubt that she was the most experienced of the lot, but I felt that Shepard's squad had a definite advantage over 545. After entering a few commands, I evened the odds a bit by giving 545 a couple of virtual CELL troops to command. CELL, or Crynet Enforcement and Local Logistics is CryNet's security force. CELL guards the various CryNet establishments in the galaxy and while not very numerous, CELL troopers are well equipped with the latest in CryNet Armories equipment.

Coming out of my thoughts I saw that Shepard had her entire squad clustered around her, no doubt discussing the upcoming match. Deciding to listen in, I routed their comm chatter through the speakers in the observation room.

Shepard was in the middle of saying something when the link established "-better teamwork and experience. So what do we know about 545?"

Wrex was the first to respond "They are all arrogant. As for Beserker he is reckless. A weak link in the squad."

"How so? I imagine he's like a krogan in blood rage. It's not easy to stop them." Garrus asked, criticizing Wrex's judgment.

Wrex chuckled, "He may very well be like a krogan in a blood rage. But tell me, when was the last time you saw a raging krogan work well in a team?"

I saw Kaidan nod thoughtfully on the monitor. "True, Beserker is more likely to overextend himself, and thereby exposed. However, I fully expect that his team works with that in mind. They most likelyprefer a very aggressive assault because of that. They'll let Beserker charge forward, while moving up themselves to cover him. Under normal circumstances it would be very difficult to stop such an attack."

"Well, what if we take out Beserker first? Their entire assault plan would be shot to hell." Ashley suggested.

"It's risky, but it could work. This all hinges on the fact that they do indeed focus on an assault type like the one we're talking about. If that's not the case then we need something else." Shepard cautioned them. "And while they may be arrogant, I highly doubt their stupid. We need a variety of strategies to deal with them. An ambush will likely be our best bet to eliminate Beserker. We just need to lure them to a place of our choosing and catch them in a well coordinated crossfire."

"Shepard?" Liara asked hesitantly "Do we even know if they will be alone?"

"Excellent question Liara." Shepard began pacing. "I think that if they are alone they will be very cautious. We'll outnumber them as it is. So I definitely suspect that they will have support in some way or another."

A hint of a smile crept on my face as I continued to listen to the squadas they formed various strategies ranging from a full on charge to hit and run strategies using long ranged attacks. Finally when I decided they were ready I told CABAL to start the simulation. With the battlefield up I listened to CABAL brief Shepard's squad disguised as 'Oversight one'.

"Sable squad, Oversight one." CABAL called the squad by their codename for this simulation. Sable one was Shepard. Two would be Kaidan followed by Ashley as Sable three. Garrus took Sable four while Liara and Tali took up Sable five and six respectively. Wrex would round up Sable squad with Sable seven. "Your orders are to find Inquisitor team 545 and wipe them out. Intel has 545 approaching from a road to the north with an armed contingentof an estimated ten troops. These troops are suspected to be well armed. Notable features of the battlefield include two prefab shelter complexes in these two locations. One is near your position and the other is near the estimated arrival point of 545. The two complexes are separated by a river which runs through the entire area. There are three ways to get over the river. This main road here, and these two smaller paths on either side. Good luck Sable. Oversight one out."

"Alright guys, they outnumber us now. We're going to have to ambush them to try and thin their numbers. The problem is where are we going to ambush them. We don't know which path they're going to take. I'd say we bunker up in this prefab complex here." Shepard outlined her plan. I glanced over at the monitor showing the tactical map that Shepard was detailing her plans on, which indicated that Shepard was planning on setting up an ambush in the complex on their side of the river, as it was the only place where they could really set up an ambush for all three paths.

"Garrus, I want you to take up an observation position in this tower. You're going to be our eyes. Tell us where they are and how many they are. Kaidan, Liara, you two are going to take up a position in this building here, alongside the main road. Ashley, Tali, you two in the building on the opposite side of the road. Wrex, I want you stationed just off the road in the south end of the complex where the southeast path joins the main road. Meanwhile I'll be stationed at the north end of the complex right where the main road and the Northwest path join together.

Our target is Beserker, if we can take him out quickly, we won't have to worry about him charging in. Once he is down, or if he doesn't take the bait we will focus on the escort. Ignore the rest of 545 and take down as many of them as possible. Once those are down we'll take out 545. Wrex, if they come from either of the northern paths I want you to try and get Beserker to charge at you. If you can lure him away from the main group he will be that much easier to take out.

If they come from the southern path, I want you to hit them from behind while I try to lure out Beserker. Tali, Kaidan If we can get Beserker, hit him with all the overloads you can, take out his shields. Once his shields are down Ash, I want you to take him out with your Krysae. Quick headshot with the Krysae should easily tear through his armor. Once he's down, I want you to pin them in place with your LMG Wrex. Garrus you can snipe the escort once they are pinned. You should be in prime position. The rest of us will cause as much carnage as possible alright?"

"Got it Commander." Kaidan acknowledged as the rest of the squad nodded their agreement.

"Well then, lets move out." Shepard ordered before cautioning "Watch your spacing, if they charge us before we get to the complex I don't want us all cut down instantly."

I nodded to myself, slightly impressed with Shepard's strategy. Whether she knew it or not her plan was perfect for taking out 545 as it used its apparent strength and their arrogance against them. 545 is a great shock and awe team, utilizing the shock of Beserker charging in and causing mass chaos to enter behind him and wipe out all resistance. This however left Beserker very exposed to enemy fire. If their enemies were not shocked by Beserker, and even managed to take him down, 545's biggest advantage would be taken and turned against them. I was interested in seeing if 545 might change up their tactics due to the amount of times they were beaten by better Inquisitor or Phantom teams who also used their own strength against them.

Turning my attention back to the monitors I saw that 545 and their escort of ten armed CELL personnel were taking the northwest path which would lead them to the north end of the prefab complex. The CELL personnel in this simulation were not real people, merely holographic replicas of the real thing being controlled by CABAL. When the group began crossing the bridge over the river they began to slow down, watching the forest to the sides of the path, obviously expecting an ambush of some kind. Looking back at Sable's monitors, I was just in time to see Ashley and Tali enter their designated building with Wrex already in position hiding in the bushes at the south end of the complex. Liara and Kaidan had already split off and were entering their building with Garrus heading towards his tower that would give him a perfect view of the surrounding area. Soon all that was left was Shepard who soon settled down in the undergrowth at the north end of the complex.

Silence spread over the complex as the squad settled down to wait for 545 to arrive. They didn't have to wait long for them to arrive however as 545 slowly came into view and stopped a few meters away from where Shepard was hiding. While the entire 545 team seemed to be of the opinion that there was infact an ambush waiting for them within the compound, there were different opinions as to how to deal with the ambush. Beserker was of the opinion that they should spring the trap with guns blazing while Stratos wanted to go the safer route of circling around and entering the compound from the forest. Unfortunately for them, the decision was taken out of their hands when Wrex showed himself, roaring out his challenge at the top of his considerable lungs.

"BESERKER! I CHALLENGE YOU! COME AND FIGHT ME LIKE A REAL WARRIOR! I HEAR FIGHTING YOU IS LIKE FIGHTING A KROGAN! BUT I DOUBT IT. YOU'RE JUST A WEAK PYJAK!"

Almost instantly an answering roar sounded and I watched as Beserker charged into the complex heading straight for Wrex, ignoring the shouts of his teammates to get back.

"FUCK! BESERKER, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" Stratos yelled "Move! Move! Into the complex, give him cover!" The rest of 545 started running after him just as Beserker made it into the middle of the complex when suddenly all hell broke loose. Sparks began to shower from Beserker as Tali and Kaidan hit him with powerful overloads. A second later and Beserker was without shields when he was suddenly yanked off his feet by Liara's biotics. Two more seconds later and a loud gunshot sounded as Ashley took a shot with her Krysae, the simulated round traveling at hypersonic speeds as it bored straight through Beserker's helmet and exploded, vaporizing his head in a burst of flame. As Beserker's simulated body fell to the ground, the real Beserker was pulled down through the floor so that he could leave the simulation without interfering with the rest of the battle.

Right as Ashley had pulled the trigger, taking Beserker out of the fight, Shepard revealed herself in a flash of biotics as she slammed into a trailing CELL trooper. The unfortunate trooper's scream was abruptly cut off as he slammed into the side of a building. Without pausing Shepard blasted another trooper away with her shotgun even as the rest of the squad turned their attention on the CELL escort.

Finally understanding what was happening Stratos gave the order to do the only sensible thing, retreat. "FALL BACK! RETREAT, BACK ACROSS THE RIVER!"

Shepard's squad was able to gun down another four CELL troopers as they ran away. Surgeon was only saved from Garrus's sniper rifle by his shields that absorbed the shot that was meant for the back of his head.

I was quite impressed by the ambush. Wrex's taunts were perfect for luring out Beserker so that he could be taken out. They had also taken out the majority of the CELL escort leaving only Stratosphere, Surgeon, Praetor and four CELL troops and these were hightailing it back to the other side of the river where they could regroup. Unfortunately for them Shepard had no intention of letting them regroup.

"We have them on the run! After them! Go! Go! Go!" She ordered, prompting the squad to leave their positions and run after the fleeing remainder of the 545.

Shepard led her squad forward through the forest and as they passed over the river she slowed down, giving the order to spread out "Alright, fan out, keep your heads on a swivel. We might have done some massive damage to them but they aren't out of the fight just yet." As ordered, the squad spread out, Shepard and Wrex leading with Ashley and Kaidan behind them. Tali and Liara went to the sides of the procession with Garrus taking up the rear. The squad slowly went over the bridge and continued up the road.

"I don't like this Shepard. We're too exposed out on the road." Garrus said quietly.

Shepard was about to respond when suddenly a two shots rang out. "GET OFF THE ROAD!" She yelled sprinting to the side of the road. A loud beeping sounded at the same time causing me to look over at the status monitor. There I saw that Tali had been hit by the snipers, Praetor and Surgeon. Praetor had fired first with an incisor sniper rifle so while it sounded like there had been only two shots, there had actually been four. The Incisor had fired off its three shots so quickly that they sounded like one single shot and had taken down Tali's shields. Before she could react another round from Surgeon's DSG-1 slammed straight through her visor taking her out. Even as Tali fell through the floor so that she could leave the simulation a hologram of her body slumped to the floor as Garrus cried out in shock at seeing Tali 'die'.

Shepard hesitated for a moment looking at 'Tali's' dead body before shouting "Fuck! Move up through the trees. They're holed up in a building on the south side of the complex. Get up as close as possible. I'll come up with a plan then."

Garrus stared at her disbelieving "What about Tali? She's dead!"

"It's a simulation Garrus! She's not actually dead." Shepard told him.

"I- oh... Right." He muttered sounding quite embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. It was very convincing." She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Now let's get on to that building. We need to flush them out of there."

"Yeah, so do you have a plan?" Garrus asked her as they continued on through the forest.

Shepard swatted aside an overhanging fern "I might."

"Well?" Garrus asked ducking underneath the backlash of the fern.

"Angry krogan." Shepard slowed to a stop by the rest of the squad who had all stopped at the edge of the forest. "Alright. So we know that there are three Inquisitors and four CELL troopers holed up in that building. With Tali out of action we'll be severely limited in our tech abilities. We're pretty much in a stalemate if we decide to surround them and only take potshots. Our shields will protect us enough and the same can be said for their own. The only way would be to storm the building, but that would be dangerous if we don't force them to keep their heads down. So here's my plan. Wrex give your LMG to Ash. You're going to be charging the building so you won't need it. Ash, Garrus you will hang back and force them to keep their heads down. The rest of us will charge for the building, and once there we'll breach. That will no doubt force them to turn their attention towards us. I want you two to start taking potshots at them if they are exposed.

"As for the building itself, I'm not sure how its laid out, but I'll put up some guidelines. If it has a single stairway leading up to the upper levels Wrex and I will lead while you two give us support." Shepard continued, looking at Kaidan and Liara, "If it has two or more stairways leading up then we will split up, two and two. Wrex and Kaidan, me and Liara. Wrex will lead while you follow him Kaidan and I'll do the same on my end Liara. Any questions?"

When no one had any Shepard continued, "Well then, let's make it happen."

While Shepard was making her plan for assaulting the building, Stratos was coming up with a plan for defense.

"Alright, we're in a bad situation. Beserker is down, along with six of the CELL troops. While we did take down the quarian they still have an advantage over us. We do however have the building and we need to use that advantage to its fullest. I expect that they will attempt to charge the building, most likely under suppressing fire. We need to keep them away at all costs. Praetor, Surgeon try to pick them off. Like how you took out the quarian. Focus fire. Try to take out Shepard if you can this time. If not prioritize the krogan or the asari. You trooper, you have a LMG?" Stratos asked a CELL trooper with a Mod 0. When he nodded Stratos continued "You stay up here with Praetor and Surgeon, but don't let them see you. They will probably try and keep them pinned so once all hell breaks loose I want you to pop up and return fire. Try and keep their heads down and let Praetor and Surgeon take them out. I'll take the rest of the CELL troops and barricade the doors, maybe leave some presents for whoever opens them. Its not an ideal plan but we have to make due with what we got. Let's do this boys. Show the commander who she's messing with here. We are the five-four-five and we will NOT fail here!"

With that rousing shout, the 545 split up to go to their assigned posts. Surgeon and Praetor took up positions at windows overlooking the forest where Shepard was hiding with the CELL trooper while Stratos went to the ground floor where the CELL troopers were waiting. There they locked and booby trapped the doors before taking up a position where they could defend the doors.

Unfortunately for them, Shepard's plan went in motion with devastating results. Having observed the building for some time Garrus and Ash had located both Praetor and Surgeon when they poked their heads out to look for them. On Shepard's signal, Ashley jumped up with Wrex's borrowed Mod-0 and started firing with short bursts at Praetor's window. When Surgeon popped up to take her out he was met with a shot from Garrus that took down his shields forcing him down once more. However Ashley and Garrus were unprepared for the CELL trooper when he popped up with his Mod-0 and started laying down fire on Garrus forcing his head down. When Ashley swiveled to take down the CELL trooper Praetor and Surgeon were able to pop up and take two quick shots at Ashley. Luckily for her they missed her head and were only able to score a shot on her shoulder forcing her down again.

While Praetor, Surgeon and the CELL trooper kept Ashley and Garrus pinned, Shepard, Wrex, Kaidan and Liara had rushed towards the building without taking much fire where they all piled up at one of the two doors. "Kaidan, smoke grenade, on my mark." Shepard ordered glancing back at Ashley and Garrus.

Nodding Kaidan grabbed a smoke grenade and slid over to one of the window's, making sure to stay out of sight. Grabbing a fragmentation grenade herself Shepard gave Wrex a signal. As Wrex walked up in front of the door she also gave Kaidan a signal upon which he smashed open the window and threw a smoke grenade inside the room. Shepard did the same with a window on her side and threw a frag grenade in just as Wrex charged straight through the door. As the door shattered underneath the weight of the charging krogan the booby trap that Stratos had set up detonated sending shrapnel straight at Wrex. Wrex's shields protected him from the majority of the shrapnel but the rest scored some hits on Wrex's armor. An instant later Shepard's frag grenade detonated, alongside Kaidan's smoke grenade filling the room with smoke. Shepard quickly rushed through the open door activating her thermal visor allowing her to see the four glowing figures in the room.

One of said figures was already lying on the floor, having been unfortunate enough to be standing exactly where Shepard's grenade had hit. The other three figures however immediately started firing into the smoke, however the two remaining CELL troopers were having a hard time hitting anything due to them not being able to see. Stratos on the other hand also had activated his Thermal Visor and was able to score multiple hits on Wrex, the simulated rounds penetrating his armor and injuring him. As Shepard picked off another CELL trooper Stratos realized that the room was lost and ordered the last CELL trooper to retreat up the stairs. Unfortunately for him he was caught in a blue aura as Liara grabbed him and yanked him back down the stairs where he met his end to Wrex's shotgun.

"Up the stairs go!" Shepard ordered and led the charge up. Wrex who's shields were still recharging went up after her with no regard for the fact that he had been shot a couple of times already. Kaidan and Liara quickly followed and as they reached the top of the stairs they were confronted with something that could only be described as chaos. All three Inquisitors were in the room squaring off against Shepard and Wrex, the last CELL trooper already lying unnaturally at the foot of the back wall. Without hesitating Kaidan fired off two overloads at Stratos and Praetor, which damaged their shields somewhat, not bringing them down fully. A burst from Praetor's Feline impacted on Shepard's shields, to which Shepard responded by glowing blue and smashing herself into Stratos, causing him to stumble back. Before he could recover, Shepard grabbed Stratos's arm and dragged him back, throwing him off his feet. Dropping into a roll Stratos pulled out a dagger similar to Wraiths and slashed out at Shepard. Ducking underneath his slash Shepard grabbed his wrist and twisted sharply. A sharp crack sounded as Stratos's wrist broke causing him to gasp in pain.

Taking the opportunity Shepard grabbed the dagger out of mid air and stabbed Stratos straight through his neck where the armor plating ended. Yanking out the knife, Stratos fell to the ground, taken out of the simulation and towards medical aid. While Shepard and Stratos had been fighting Wrex had charged Surgeon. The light and agile drell tried to dodge out of the way but Wrex would not have it and hit him across the room where he smashed straight through the wall and out of the building where he fell to the ground. While he was still alive, that changed when Garrus sent a sniper round into his head. With only Praetor still fighting against the rest of the squad he was quickly taken down by the combined fire of Shepard, Wrex, Kaidan and Liara.

"Simulation ended. Sable squad victorious. One casualty, two injuries. 545 wiped out... Not bad." CABAL commented.

CARLA's hologram nodded "Shepard certainly didn't disappoint. 545 didn't stand a chance."

"Indeed. I do believe that they are ready. CARLA, is my suit repaired yet?"

"Almost. Finishing touches are being applied now. Do you want to put it on right away?"

I nodded, "I want to be ready to leave when Shepard gives the word."

"Very well. I will inform the lab of your imminent arrival."

I nodded "Thank you CARLA. CABAL, I'll see you later."

"No doubt you will, Director."

_**Shepard's POV**_

With the simulation ended, Shepard was confronted by 545 who congratulated her on her victory.

"Well done Commander. Nice tangling with you there there. You deserved that victory." Stratosphere shook her hand giving her a nod of respect.

"Well fought Stratosphere. We may have to do this again."

"Heh. We'll be better then that's for sure. Good luck on your mission. Know that the 545 is standing behind you if you ever need us."

"I appreciate it Stratosphere. Good luck on all your own missions."

Shaking hands one last time the 545 exited the simulator. Moments after, a holographic screen appeared in front of Shepard with various categories to choose her next simulation if she wanted.

"I think we can do one more sim, you guys up to it?" Shepard asked hand hovering over a choice on the screen.

"I think that we all are up for another one." Garrus answered.

Shepard smirked "Well then, let's get started." Selecting her choice, Shepard stood back as the screen disappeared and the room morphed into a wide sprawling battlefield. The sky took on a reddish tinge and the squad could see multiple fires off in the distance. The sounds of distant gunfire and artillery impacts reached them.

"Where are we commander?" Kaidan asked.

As if answering him, Oversight 1 contacted them for their briefing. "Sable squad, Oversight one. You have been deployed to the planet of Zorya. Terminus forces have entrenched themselves around their headquarters in the capital city of Thun. Turian forces are unable to push forward due to the artillery batteries located two clicks east of your position. Your objective is to take out those artillery batteries to allow our ground forces to take Thun. Topographical and tactical data has been uploaded to your VI's. Good luck Sable, Oversight one out."

Taking a quick look at the map Shepard turned and headed towards the marked location "I'll explain on the way there. Pretty much this is a simulation of a single battle in a hypothetical war with the Terminus systems. Specifically, near the end of the war with Citadel forces trying to take control of one of the Terminus' main planets of Zorya. As Oversight one said, we need to take out the artillery that is keeping Citadel troops from assaulting their HQ on the planet."

"How are we going to destroy the artillery?" Ashley asked.

"With the explosives that the simulator was kind enough to provide us with." Shepard said patting a pouch that was now hanging off of her waist.

"That should do it. So what's the plan commander?" Kaidan asked.

"Looking over the intel that we have and I'm thinking that we should split up into two groups of three and hit them from two sides at once." Shepard told them.

"You do realize that we are seven people Commander." Garrus asked cautiously.

Shepard looked affronted at that "Of course. That is why the seventh, you, will be providing us sniper support."

"Sounds good Commander. Who will lead the second team?" Kaidan asked.

"You will Kaidan. Take Ash and Liara with you. I'll take Wrex and Tali. Kaidan you will circle around and hit them from the west, I'll hit them from the east. Garrus, to the south of the encampment there is a hill that should give you a good view of the entire base. That's where you'll give us support."

"Alright Commander. I've received waypoints there." Garrus told her.

"Excellent. Now then, according to the topographical maps, I'd suggest we all split up here. That way we lower the risk of being detected before the assault. Once we start the assault, I want us all to head for this location." Shepard highlighted a clearing right in the middle of the base "We'll group up there and head on to the last emplacement. Also," Shepard continued pulling out a couple of explosive charges from her pouch and tossed them over to Kaidan "You might want these. Plant them on the emplacements when you reach them, get to a safe distance, then detonate. Got that all?"

"Yes Commander." Kaidan nodded.

"Excellent. Garrus, sweep the area for snipers before the assault and take those out first once the assault has begun. Once you've done that, start taking out the higher priority targets. If all goes to plan this op shouldn't take too long. Good luck boys, see you in the base."

With that out of the way Shepard and Kaidan took their squads and split off from one another while Garrus continued straight on. After ten minutes of walking through the undergrowth Wrex became uneasy, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Shepard glanced back at him "What do you mean?".

"I just can't shake the feeling that things are not going to go according to plan."

"What should we do Commander?" Tali asked.

Shepard continued walking in silence, thinking heavily until, "We continue on and deal with whatever tries to interrupt us."

Wrex nodded, pleased "It's a good plan."

The rest of the trek continued on with some banter between the three of them until they reached the artillery base where, after hiding themselves in a ditch Shepard checked in with the others. "Kaidan, Garrus this is Shepard. I'm in position. Whats your status?"

"Garrus here. In position and good to go. No hostile snipers spotted."

"We're in position Commander. Just waiting on you're go."

"Copy that. Go go go!" Throwing herself out of the ditch Shepard sprinted forward into the base, spotting two soldiers with their weapons propped up against a wall next to them. Before they could do anything other than stare dumbly at her Shepard fired two shots with her Majestic, each finding their mark inside the heads of each soldier, as their Kinetic barriers hadn't been activated. Tearing past the two guards, Shepard heard shots coming from the opposite side of camp as well as the distant crack from Garrus' sniper rifle. Rounding the corner past the two dead guards, Shepard was confronted by five more soldiers, all of them in the process of reaching for their weapons and activating their shields. Before Shepard could open fire a stream of biotic energy rushed past her and slammed into the middle of the group where it materialized as Wrex who immediately turned and smashed an armored figure to the side and took another out with a shotgun blast to the face. Firing a quick burst at another soldier, Shepard took down his shields when a blast of fire engulfed him causing him to scream as he died. Immediately shifting her view to the last soldier Shepard took him down with a quick burst followed by a biotic throw.

Rolling to the side as another large group exited a nearby building, Shepard crouched down behind a container while Wrex gave a roar and charged straight into the middle of the group. Tali who had pressed herself against the wall of a building ducked around and fired off an overload at an armored turian which she followed up with a quick incinerate.

Firing another burst off, Shepard vaulted over the cover and concentrated for a second, wrapping herself in a biotic barrier she then propelled herself forward and slammed herself into a batarian who was about to take a shot at Wrex from behind. Almost immediately after she was hit by a throw from an asari who was readying a warp to follow up her throw with. Rolling to the side Shepard dodged the warp and retaliated with a warp of her own. The asari having expected her warp to have hit Shepard, tried to dodge but was too late as she was hit by the warp that tore through her barriers and left her open to being thrown into a window by a backhand from Wrex.

It was in this manner that Shepard, Wrex and Tali fought their way through the base towards the first artillery cannon. Wrex would charge in headfirst while Shepard would use the distraction Wrex created to wreak havoc on the Terminus soldiers. Tali helped more often than not by taking down shields, incinerating or flash freezing whatever she could and when possible using her shotgun to take out anyone who came too close.

Upon reaching the cannon, Shepard and Wrex defended it while Tali got to work setting the charges. With the charges set, the squad continued on to the next cannon where instead of finding Terminus soldiers waiting for them, all they found was silence. Shepard's senses immediately went into overtime upon noticing this. They should have been able to hear Kaidan's squad fighting from where they were but instead they didn't hear a thing.

"I don't like this one bit." Wrex growled "Where are the soldiers, are they too scared to fight?"

"I don't like this either. Hold on, I'm going to try and contact Kaidan and Garrus." Shepard said opening a comm channel to both of them. "Sable two, Sable four. Sable one here come in." A few seconds past in silence before Shepard tried again "Sable two, Sable four this is Sable one, report in... Kaidan, Garrus, anybody, do you read me?" Shepard broke off as she heard a gasp of pain before suddenly her VI beeped in alarm showing that Tali's vitals had gone critical. Spinning around to where the VI was indicating Tali was she saw that something was protruding from Tali's visor. "FUCK!" She swore upon seeing Tali's 'dead' body. Moving closer to Tali she was able to tell exactly what Tali had been hit by. "An arrow? Wrex, did you see who it was?"

Wrex shook his massive head as he gripped his shotgun "No, I had thought I'd heard something over there moments before though." He said motioning towards a spot away from Tali. "I think that something is hunting us."

"Not only us." Shepard muttered, "Kaidan's squad and Garrus have gone dark."

"Who do you think it is?" Wrex asked as he kept looking behind himself.

"There is only one thing that I can imagine would be able to do something like that" She nodded towards Tali's body "So quickly and silently. A-" Shepard was interrupted by a dark figure materializing in mid air as it flew straight towards Wrex, bow aimed right at him.

_**Wraith POV**_

"PHANTOM!" Shepard's shout filled my ears as I descended towards Wrex, releasing the arrow from my bow. It burrowed straight through the krogan's head plate and into his brain, having completely bypassed his shields.

"Hello Shepard." I said landing and drawing the string of my bow back, new arrow already notched in place. Before I could do anything else Shepard fired a burst from her assault rifle forcing me to release the arrow before I could aim it properly and roll to the side.

"_**Cloak engaged."**_

Coming out of my roll I took off at a sprint sliding to a stop behind a pile of crates. Drawing the string of my bow back I popped up from behind the crates only to find a blast of biotic energy speeding towards me. The blast shorted out my cloak, knocked me off of my feet and forced me to drop the bow. Quickly readjusting, I twisted so that I hit the side of a building feet first so that I could immediately jump off the wall. Landing in a roll I immediately continued on in a sideways roll which caused Shepard's warp to miss me allowing me to scoop up my bow from the ground, have SECOND notch a new type of arrow and quickly shoot it at partial draw. The new arrow, armed with an airburst tip detonated right before it hit her. I had hoped to be able to force her into cover. Unfortunately for me she flared blue and charged towards me.

_Fuck._ Was my only thought as she slammed into me causing me to stagger back as the suit compensated for the sudden impact. Fortunately for me Shepard didn't have her shotgun out and so was unable to blast me away. Unfortunately for me Shepard had a backup plan of both infusing her fist with biotic power and using the GHOST's muscle fibers to increase the power of her punch. So as I saw the glowing blue fist speeding towards me I did the only sensible thing, I spun out of the way and slashed out at her with my dagger, scoring a hit on her armor before she was able to stop my arm. Quickly responding with a lightning fast punch to my stomach followed by two solid punches to my head dazed me for a second allowing her to blast me away with a biotic throw. Luckily for me that throw blasted me out of her vision allowing me to cloak and circle around her. When she realized her mistake she quickly backed into a corner, SCAR raised.

Jumping up on top of a building I notched another arrow back, pulling the string back all I raised the bow and aimed it at Shepard and just as she noticed me standing there released the string. The heavy arrow whizzed through the air, bypassed Shepard's shields and burrowed straight through her helmet into her head.

"_Simulation ended. Operative Wraith the victor. Congratulations." _ CABAL said over the intercom as I looked down at Shepard who was still crouching in the corner.

"Well fought Shepard. Well fought indeed." I said extending my hand for her to grasp.

"I was not expecting you. I suppose I should have though." Shepard said ruefully as she stood up. "What was that anyway? CryNet unable to afford producing top tier weapons and are resorting to bows and arrows now?"

I laughed. "Expect the unexpected eh Shepard? This little beauty is the simulated prototype of the Predator bow. Silent and deadly. Or at least we hope it will be."

Shepard regarded me for a moment, "It will be?"

I chuckled, "Yeah It's only a simulation. We don't even have a real prototype of it yet, just the design and projected capabilities. We do this with all of our new weapon designs. We can calculate their capabilities and make a simulation of it to see if we need to tweak something before the prototype. Call it a prototype of a prototype if you will. It doesn't always work. Sometimes what happens in real life is different from what the simulation tells us, but it usually gives us a good guideline."

"I see. So why a bow?"

"Kinda remarkable really. Bows can actually do more damage than most guns in a single shot. The main drawback is the fact that its harder to use than a gun. However the Predator bow is designed with a Nanosuit in mind. A powerful compound bow can be fired while cloaked without completely draining the Nanosuit energy which is a huge benefit for stealth operations. And the arrows bypass shields as standard kinetic barriers are not programmed for such low velocities. Now I'm sure you can imagine just how useful that could be when infiltrating enemy positions."

"I suppose. But its not that great in open combat."

I grimaced "Yeah, and it showed. It was the only thing I took with me. I wanted to see how it would work. How did you spot me while cloaked by the way?"

"Thermals. You're cloak might lower your thermal image but its still there."

"Of course... Thermals." I grumbled "Saw your fight with 545 by the way. Nice work there."

"Thanks. I suppose that your suit is fixed?"

"Yeah it's fixed. We're ready to leave whenever you are."

"Commander!" We looked up to see Kaidan walking towards us, "Just received a call from Joker. Apparently there is a message waiting for you aboard the Normandy."

"Did he say who it's from?" Shepard asked.

"He just said it came from Alliance Brass."

"Well I suppose we've spent enough timehere. Let's go."

The rest of the squad was waiting for us in the simulator armory where they were dropping off all of their borrowed equipment. They all looked up at our entry and Garrus called out to me "Hey Wraith! Good shooting there. I never saw it comin."

"Thanks Garrus."

"That bow sure is something? How far away were you?" Garrus asked, grilling me on how I took him down.

"About hundred and fifty meters. It was not easy lining up that shot by the way. If SECOND hadn't helped me. . . Well I probably wouldn't have hit you."

"Pretty smart I suppose. I was pretty shocked when I was taken out by a single shot from the middle of nowhere."

"You did a quick job taking us out as well." Ashley said.

"Yeah, a suggestion for next time though, once you notice someone go down out of nowhere, don't stick around. I understand that you would want to help your teammate but in this case that just allowed me to take you out easier. Your VI will tell you if you can help your teammate or not, and even if you can, I'd suggest trying to locate the hostiles first." I explained.

"I suppose its good to sometimes fall back on tried and true methods of combat." Kaidan said.

"That's for sure." I laughed "The bow may be old, but just about every humanoid species that we know of have developed the bow or something similar so I'd say its pretty damn good."

"Seeing that performance I'd be insane to try and argue." Ashley said.

"Well, I seem to be pretty good at covert operations."

"You're not boasting much are you?" Shepard asked me.

"I am merely trying to show them how to not be taken out like that again and regale them with a bit about history." I defended myself.

Shepard chuckled sarcastically "Sure. Like that's all you were doing."

After we had all dropped off our equipment during which some good natured insults were exchanged between me and Shepard we all began heading back to the Normandy. Before we made it to the docking bay however we were intercepted by Prophet and Nomad.

"Commander Shepard! Wraith, I'm glad we could catch you before you left." Prophet said coming up from a hallway on our right "We watched you in the simulator when we could. Pretty impressive taking down 545 like that."

Shepard shook his hand "Thanks Prophet."

"You're going back on your Spectre hunt then?" Nomad asked.

"Possibly, apparently there is a transmission waiting for me aboard the Normandy. I need to see what's going on there." Shepard answered.

"I see. We're heading out ourselves. We've picked up reports of a distress signal in the Argos Rho cluster. Intel has possibility of a geth ambush so they are sending us." Prophet told us.

"Yeah, best way to get rid of an ambush is to spring it, 'eh boss?" Psycho's voice sounded as he walked out of a door to our right. "Anyway, rest of the team is ready to go. We're just waiting on you."

"Alright. Shepard, it's been privilegemeeting you." Prophet said stopping outside of the door Psycho had come through.

"Likewise Prophet." Shepard said shaking his hand.

Continuing on in silence we eventually arrived at the door leading on to the Normand's hanger bay. Entering we found two CryNet employees with a large crate between them waiting for us. Underneath my helmet I smirked, knowing why they were here.

"Ah Commander Shepard? Tom Jones. Its an honor to meet you ma'am." The first one said upon seeing us arrive.

"Likewise Mr. Jones." Shepard shook his hand.

The second employee stepped forward "Operative Wraith! I've heard much about you sir. My name's Bill Lee."

I took his hand, "I hope not too much eh Mr. Lee?" I asked good naturedly.

"Oh uh, no sir!" Lee said slightly unsure of himself.

Jones continued "Commander, we're here to deliver these weapons to you, courtesy of Director Duncan."

Shepard glanced over at me shocked.

I grinned, "The Director figured that you could fulfill your part of the sponsorship bargain on the Normandy."

She slowly shook her head bringing her attention back onto the two employees. "Well then, I suppose we should get these onboard then."

_A/N And that finishes the Prism Arc. Now we are going back to ME events. As you can see I introduced the "simulated Prototype" of the predator bow because I just had to bring it in as soon as possible. Since its just a simulated prototype we won't be seeing the actual prototype until later on. _

_Also thanks to Strat545 for his inquisitor team 545. _

_Anyway, I'm pretty excited for Crysis 3. Just a few more days! I just know that its going to wreak havoc on my writing because I'm going to be playing that. Oh boy. I'm pretty excited though. . . _

_Constructive criticism is welcomed and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. _

_As always I'll be seeing you on the 2nd._

_~LEGION_


	11. Chapter 11: History of the GHOST

**Disclaimer: I don't own ME or Crysis, that would be Bioware, CryTek and EA.**

**Opening A/N from DN7: Hey everyone, my OC (Ryan 'Atlas' Mitchell) from my story Mass Effect: The Unsung Hero makes an appearance in this chapter! Part of the perks of being a beta reader is working with the author to make things like this happen. While he doesn't make a huge entrance, it's enough to get you guys geared up for his 'mission'. Enough from me for now though, read on!**

**LEGION: Yes yes, as you can all see, DN7 is my beta for this so thanks to him for that. Anyway, on with the chap!**

Upon boarding the Normandy, Shepard led Jones and Lee down to the armory in the cargo bay while I was quickly dragged into a discussion between Ashley and Kaidan.

Kaidan was giving his opinion that due to the fact that the Terminus systems were so splintered the only reason for them to band together would be if the Council spooked them enough to join together or someone with enough charisma would be able to bring them all together. Ashley on the other hand was more of the opinion that if they thought that they would get something worthwhile out of it they could easily start a war. Personally I figured that the Terminus wouldn't do much without Aria T'Loak, the "Queen" of Omega. Especially after the failed Skyllian Blitz, which was followed up by the Torfan and Theshaca raids.

"Wraith!" Shepard pulled me out of the conversation, calling from the entrance to the Captain's quarters "I think you need to hear this."

Tilting my head slightly I excused myself and walked over to her, "What is it?".

Walking into her quarters Shepard began explaining, "You remember Edolus?"

"Kinda hard forgetting being tossed around by a Thresher maw." I said dryly.

Shepard chuckled slightly "Right. Well, I contacted Admiral Kahoku. The marines who were killed by those maws were under his command. We just got his response and it's rather worrying." She then keyed up the transmission from her computer.

"_Shepard. It's Admiral Kahoku. I got you're message. I did some digging and I found out who set that trap for my men. I really hope you get this message. It's important. It was a group called Cerberus. They were an Alliance black ops organization. Top secret, highest level security clearance. They vanished a while ago. No one knows where they went or what they were doing. They dropped right of the grid. They have gone completely rogue Shepard. Conducting illegal genetic experiments. I think they are trying to create some kind of super-soldier. _

_I don't have any proof, but I did find the coordinates for one of their research worlds. I'm uploading them with this message. They are completely out of control. Somebody needs to stop them. I've done my part. They are after me now, so the rest is up to you. I am also sending a message to CryNet. They are probably the only ones able to do anything about them. The Alliance can't - or won't - do anything. Neither will the Council. This is probably the last you'll hear from me. Cerberus is after me. I need to disappear before they find me or I will be dead. . . Or worse. Kahoku out."_

"Cerberus." I hissed, narrowing my eyes.

"You know them?" Shepard asked.

"Not as much as I'd like. Just knew that they were a part of the Alliance's Deniable Black Ops Division. We know their leader is goes by the codename 'The Illusive Man' and that it consists of multiple cells. A few rumors here and there, along with a manifesto published after the first contact war that calls for a 'Cerberus' to defend humanity against alien threats." I paused for a moment to let Shepard process the information. "Honestly? This is the best lead we've gotten on Cerberus so far, and it makes me wonder how Kahoku was able to uncover it."

"Hmm..." Shepard thought for a moment before reaching over and pressing a button on her desk, "Joker!"

"Aye Commander?"

"Set a course for the Planet Binthu. Voyager Cluster."

"Aye aye Commander, setting a new course now."

"We're heading there ourselves?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah, I want to personally check this out."

"Fair enough I suppose. Just-"

"- don't let it get in the way of hunting Saren." Shepard interrupted me. "I _know_. But we don't have any leads on him at the moment anyway, so we might as well deal with this. Need I remind you that you were rather keen on us going to the Prism?"

"Alright alright. I surrender." I said raising my hands. "Although in my defense it was to get you _free _top of the line equipment."

"Oh shut it you." She smirked punching me in the shoulder.

"Gah! Violent woman." I muttered quietly.

"What was that?" She asked me innocently.

"I said that you're-" I was rudely interrupted when I was surrounded in a blue aura that yanked me off the ground and held me there. "Alright! Alright, fine! I didn't say anything."

"Oh good. I thought you had said something." She released me from her biotic field at the end of her sentence. "Anyway would you mind telling me about the GHOST armor?"

I tilted my head in confusion "Didn't they tell you about it at the Prism?"

"Oh they told us about its functionality in great detail. I want to hear about its origins, how it came to be, why did you create it... You know, the good stuff."

I chuckled, "Ah I see. And what prompted this curiosity?"

"I'm just interested in knowing about it from an inside source. There's the public knowledge but I want to know how it really happened."

"Fair enough I suppose. It's not like its top secret intel." I paused for a moment glancing around "Uh - is the room clean?"

"Should be. I swept it for bugs when we left the Citadel."

"Good. Good." I said raising my hands up to my head while disengaging the locks around my helmet and mask. Pulling the helmet away with a soft hissing noise I pulled a chair over and sat down placing my helmet on the desk. "Ahhh, that's better. Even with all the time I've spent behind a mask, it's nice to be able to take it off in front of others. Anyway, so what _do_ you know? Its easier for me to work with that."

"Just what's available on the extranet, which is honestly merely a bunch of rumors. Essentially they all say an Alliance marine was on an op with a Phantom team. Having seen a nanosuit in action, he got the idea of putting armored plates on the suit and using it as heavy armor. The suit's strength would allow the user to wear armor that would normally slow them down and the plates themselves could be heavier and stronger than anything a normal person could wear. Where the rumors diverge is who approached who first. One theory says the marine went to CryNet. The other says that CryNet approached him. In the end, CryNet developed the prototype with his designs and following the development of the GHOST armor, the Inquisitors were created to use it."

Leaning back I nodded slowly "And most of that is correct, albeit extremely cut short and low on details. I suppose that I'll start with that they got the fact that he was a marine, but what they are missing is what kind of marine he was. He was an N7 like yourself. One of the best infact. You may have heard of him." I said looking at Shepard, "Ryan Mitchell."

"Mitchell? _The _Ryan Mitchell?" Shepard asked surprised.

"Yup. The one whose records you broke in training." I smirked, "Well, almost all his records. You never did beat his marksmanship records."

"Bah, I'm terrible with a sniper. Too much trying to thread a needle and not enough reward." Shepard grumbled.

"I'm offended Shepard. I seem to recall me sniping an armature down on Therum in a single shot."

"You had an overpowered sniper rifle. You said it yourself. Now, on with the story. How did you get Mitchell to join CryNet."

"Whoa whoa, hold on." I said raising my hand "From the beginning now. You see Mitchell and his unit had been stationed on a planet, I forget where. In any case, they were protecting some Prothean technology that had been found while waiting for a Council ship to arrive and pick them up. It seems that some pirates thought it would be profitable for them to assault the base and take the artifacts for themselves to sell on the black market. So they attacked the outpost. The pirates had landed in force and would have been able to overrun the base with sheer numbers. Seeing the odds were against even his own impressive N-squad, he managed to get off an SOS. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for the pirates, a Phantom team happened to be in the area."

I paused glancing over at Shepard "You've met that particular team by the way on the Prism. Raptor team. I suppose that if it had been any other team, Mitchell may not have gotten the idea." Shepard just raised an eyebrow, and I continued explaining, "You see, Raptor team has this brilliant shock and awe tactic that they've used for quite some time now. One of them, usually Prophet or Psycho, will grab a large plate of metal, or a crate or something big and bullet proof. Prophet, Psycho and Jester will then assault a position head on using the one carrying the plate as cover. Nomad and Aztec though will flank around and hit the enemy while they are distracted. It's pretty damn effective in nearly any situation. While I wasn't there, I've seen the reports and heard the stories enough to know that that's what they did to repel the pirates assault.

Anyway once Raptor had rescued Mitchell, and secured the artifact on the Council ship, they went on to assault the Pirate base that had been established on the planet. Mitchell and his squad went with them and together they took out the pirates main base of operations within the sector. With the pirates defeated Raptor and Mitchell parted ways and that was that. It was however a couple of months after that that Mitchell popped up on our radar again."

_**Flashback, September 2nd 2179**_

My eyes narrowed as I read over the report that had been sent to me by Axel not an hour before. Reaching the end of the report I sneered as I quickly sent a message to the rest of the board saying that we needed to have a meeting. Receiving three answers I stood up and walked over to the window and glared out at the distant stars. I didn't have to stand there long before I heard the buzzing sound of a hologram activating behind me.

"I assume this has to do with the report I sent you?" Axel asked me.

"That's for sure." I turned around to see his hologram standing in the middle of my office.

"You came to the same conclusions as I did then?"

"Of course. We can't just let some random guy break the Accords when it suits him."

"My thoughts exactly. We-" Axel was interrupted by the appearance of Derek and Niel.

"Martin. What's so urgent?" Niel asked me.

"A break of the Accords." I answered shortly.

"Oh?" He raised his eyebrow.

"I assume you didn't get the report I sent you?" Axel asked.

Derek shrugged, "I got it I just haven't read it yet. Why?"

Axel nodded to himself for a moment, "Then I'll explain. Six hours ago, one of our intelligence agents reported a possible unauthorized use of Synthetic Muscle Fibers. Investigating I learned that one Ryan Mitchell had created a design for an armor prototype that uses SMF's for mobility. Investigating more I learned that this prototype has some definite similarities to the nanosuit. I'm sure you can see them even from these initial designs." He said as the schematic for said prototype appeared next to him.

Examining it I was easily able to tell the similarities. This prototype was pretty much a suit of SMF's looking similar to the nanosuit covered in various metal plates for additional protection.

"That was three hours ago." Axel continued, "I then did some more investigating. Apparently he plans on submitting the design to Alliance R&D tomorrow. He obviously wants it to be created by them."

My head snapped up at that "Tomorrow? Damn. We might be able to stop that then."

"We are _not _going to kill him Martin." Niel said sharply. "We don't really need to worry about the Alliance right now anyway. Or do you think that they would willingly break the Accords over this? Not to mention their R&D is pretty tied up in their new stealth frigate project."

"There is no telling with the Alliance actually." Axel said. "I think that, if they thought they could keep it hidden from us they would."

"Mmh... What do we know about Mitchell anyway?" Niel asked.

"Yeah, his name seems familiar." I said thinking outloud.

"It's not surprising" Axel said "His team is the one that Raptor saved from pirates a couple of months ago."

"Oh right. I remember now. He was guarding a Prothean artifact as I recall." I mused as I started pacing.

Axel nodded, "That's right. Now then a bit of background on him.

Ryan Mitchell. He was born March, 9th 2149 on Earth. At the age of 11 he lost his parents to a botched mugging by a red sand addict. At 18, he enlisted in the Alliance where he graduated basic training as top of his class in marksmanship, hand to hand and demolitions.

In 2169 he lead a raid against a pirate outpost which led him to be invited to the Interplanetary Combative Training. He completed the training in a year when he received N6. At the time it was the fastest that anyone completed ICT. His record was broken by Vanyali Shepard five years later who completed the ICT in eleven months. Anyway, he was promoted to Staff Lieutenant in 2172 when he successfully led an operation that granted him N7 status.

He also received a masters degree in mechanical engineering when he wasn't on assignment. Finally just a few months ago he defended a Prothean dig site from pirates until Raptor team arrived. Afterwards Raptor team and Mitchell's squad assaulted the Pirate base together. After the mission he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and now it looks like he made a design for an armor prototype that breaks the Accords."

Derek who had been silent until now finally spoke up, "Why don't we recruit him?"

I spluttered in surprise and stopped dead in my tracks "Recruit him? He's submitting a design to the Alliance that in in direct conflict with the Accords! You know what would happen if we let that kind of tech get out where any common criminal can get it!"

"And how would recruiting him be dangerous? We keep him from spreading the tech around and we get to use the design for ourselves." Derek argued.

"We don't exactly need that you know. The nanosuit is superior to that in just about every regard."

Niel looked thoughtful for a moment before, "He has a point Martin. CRYSTAL has already projected the R&D costs for this prototype and is fairly sure that the armor would be quite a bit cheaper than the nanosuit when prepped for mass production. You of all people also know that we don't have nearly enough Phantoms to deal with terrorist situations, fight pirates and mercenaries both out in the galaxy and in Council space.

We have talked about fielding a new type of agent that could deal with any threats in Council space while the Phantoms cover the Terminus and this design would allow us to do just that Think objectively Martin! We only have eleven Phantoms, now split into three teams. Not to mention the entire situation with Wolverine-"

"I am well aware of the situation with Wolverine." I spat, interrupting him.

"Well if we did have another operative type, it would certainly take the load off of the Phantoms. They could concentrate on other things, like hunting for Wolverine. Or whatever missions suit the Phantom team's infiltration specialty." Niel reasoned.

Letting out a massive sigh I sank backward into my chair.

It was then that Axel gave his opinion. "I'll admit. Looking over the data, well. There is just too much for just the Phantoms to do. Derek's idea is not that bad."

"Now it looks to me that this armor is different enough from the nanosuit so that we could even sell it publicly. The muscle fiber in the design doesn't have the cloaking or armor capabilities of the CryFibril and it wouldn't have the entire problem with symbiosis. Perfect for selling." Derek mused.

I shook my head "I don't like the idea of selling it. We'd be giving the common criminal a way of getting top of the line armor that could possibly go up against the Nanosuit."

"Not necessarily. I'd say that at the moment its barely on par with the Nanosuit, yet the Nanosuit 2 is nearing its final stages. And I fully expect that it will increase its power by at least 20%, most likely more than that." Derek told me. "That and it's not like we would just let anyone buy it. We can install monitoring software to prevent the technology from falling into the wrong hands. We also have to look at Mitchell's track record. If he managed to design this himself, imagine what he could do if another hardsuit or arms firm got wind of his talent? We could use him."

A silence followed Derek's statement as we all thought about the situation. Eventually it was broken by Niel who said, "It's irrelevant at the moment. We don't know if Mitchell will even join us. I suggest that we meet with him. If he won't join us then we can always confiscate the designs and work on them ourselves."

"Fine." I acquiesced to that plan. "We'll meet with Mitchell. Do we know where he is?"

Axel consulted a computer. "He's on the way to Arcturus at the moment, so we won't be able to discuss this with him until after he meets with Alliance R&D."

"Great," I muttered. "Think we have to remind them of the Accords?"

"Let me deal with that Martin. Don't worry, I'll make sure that they know that they can't accept the design proposal." Niel told me.

"Well. I'd say that that's it. If there's nothing else?" Derek asked.

"No." I waved him away tiredly, "No that's it."

_**September 4th, two days later**_

It was finally time. We had just sent a message to the Alliance requesting to meet with Mitchell via hologram. We didn't have to wait too long for a hologram of a fairly tall and well built man to appear in front of us.

Leaning back in my chair I started the conversation "Ryan Mitchell, I presume."

Mitchell crossed his arms, "If you were expecting someone else I can go get them from you."

"You're not really in a position to make wisecracks Mitchell." I growled.

Mitchell's eyes furrowed a bit, "I don't know how you were raised, but when meeting someone for the first time, it's appropriate to give them your name. Especially when you already know theirs."

Sensing a potential problem Niel cut in, "I apologize for not introducing ourselves. We are the CryNet Board of Directors.I am Director Niel Teems, founder and Director of Alpha Tech and Sciences. On my right is CryTell Director Axel Petersen, and CryTech Directer Derek Antonov. On my left is CryOps Director Duncan."

Mitchell's face relaxed a bit, and he went into a relaxed parade rest position, "_Lt. Commander_ Ryan Mitchell, N7." He emphasized his rank with a bit of venom in his voice.

"We know who you are Commander. The question at hand is do you know why this meeting is taking place?" Axel crossed his arms and leaned back.

"Only two possibilities cross my mind, either you want a follow up report from the skirmish your Raptor team helped me out in. Or it could have something to do with the designs I submitted to Alliance R&D yesterday and were immediately shot down. Ostensibly due to budget constraints." Mitchell paused for a moment before continuing with a smile, "I'm betting its the latter of the two"

I jumped at the opportunity, "So if you know what the reason for this meeting is then you know that the design you submitted yesterday is in direct violation of the CryNet Accords."

"After I had asked why it was denied, the R&D Board gave me a stack of datapads, all with the details of your Accords. I haven't gotten that far into the legal stuff to see that you guys own all rights to anything using SMF. I think I still have another hundred thousand pages to go yet."

"Yes, as serious as your violation was, it is not the main purpose behind this meeting. You see Commander, we have a proposition for you." Derek was quick to steer the conversation away from dangerous waters. The Accords were one thing that CryNet had to fight tooth and nail for with the Council, and as it was some parts of it were barely accepted by both sides.

We could barely hear Mitchell mutter, "Well that's unexpected," with a slightly shocked expression as he shifted his weight to his backleg and crossed his arms.

Continuing Niel leaned towards Mitchell's hologram. "Now then, if you don't mind me asking. What was the reason behind the designs? Why did you make them in the first place?"

Mitchell would then reply, "Primarily to give my team and the rest of the N7's a more than fighting chance against the numerous pirate bands in the Traverse and Terminus. Your Phantom's can't be everywhere at once, and my team and I got lucky with Raptor being on hand. While uncommon, that kind of force we were faced with would have made even a Krogan worried. With the armor I designed we would have had a fighting chance if that were to happen again as well as to allow us to take on higher risk missions."

Axel nodded once. "We thought as much. Your armor designs would definitely give you an advantage over the pirates, however there is one flaw in your reasoning which is the one the Accords are meant to address. To prevent the natural escalation of weapons and hardsuit technologies, we keep as much about synthetic muscle fiber technology to ourselves as we can. Our current projections show that your designs would be nearly in line with the current nanosuit, and that is something that cannot be allowed into the free market just yet so we, as well as other military peacekeeping forces, can maintain our edge."

Mitchell was quick to counter, "There are two things I see wrong with that though. One being you are limiting the amount of work that can be done with not only my armor designs, but synthetic muscle fibers as a whole. The other being that you are stifling the advancement of synthetic muscle technology to benefit your Phantoms. What gives you that right to prevent the good that can be done with not only my armor designs, but the technology behind the nanosuits?"

"Believe me, this is something that has been discussed between us and the Citadel Council numerous times. While it is not the ideal situation, you must trust that we have only the best in mind for the galaxy as a whole. However, I think its time to discuss our proposition for you."

Niel continued from where Derek left off. "We've toyed with the notion of creating another class of operatives within CryNet to handle the increasing load of organized crime in Citadel space so the Phantoms can work more on the Terminus/Citadel border. Your armor designs seem like they would work quite well with this new operative class. They are much cheaper to produce, provide excellent protection from small arms fire, and can be fielded in a short amount of time. While we are within our legal rights to seize your designs, we want the input from the combat experienced special ops soldier who drew them up in the first place."

Mitchell leaned back thoughtfully for a moment before speaking, "I have a commitment here with the Alliance and to my team. Right now, what exactly do you have in mind for me that you think would get me to join CryNet? "

"As I said, you would be a consultant within the design process, helping CryTech create the armor." Derek told him before he looked pointedly at me to continue.

Sighing slightly I grudgingly added, "As you are experienced in combat, the opportunity of testing the prototype would also be available for you as well as a place within the possible new operative class."

"Just as one of the operatives? Or would I get to lead my own team?" -Mitchell

"As we do not know how this new operative class will work that is an unknown. If the operatives will work in teams, which admittedly is likely, then you would be able to lead your own team as otherwise it would be a gross waste of experience." I responded

Mitchell took some time to think again before answering. "Alright... Here's my counteroffer. You guys talk to my CO and the Alliance Admirals to get me as a consultant until the end of my enlistment. After which I'll join CryNet properly. Once the armor is finished, and assuming you deem it available for public sale, give Alliance N7's a discount."

"And when does your enlistment end?" Derek asked him shrewdly.

"11 months, 2 weeks, 4 days" -Mitchell

After a short discussion between the four of us, Niel turned to Mitchell to give him our decision "Very well. The CryNet Board accepts your offer. We will be contacting Captain Hawk and Alliance Command within the next few days to finalize your place as a consultant after which we will send you the contract for you to sign."

"Alright..." Mitchell clasped his hands together, and with a smile asked, "So how much am I going to get paid?"

**August 23rd 2180**

With Mitchell on board the CryNet team, work on the 'Titan' powered armor began. A short year later, and Titan was undergoing live fire trials.

"Welcome back Ryan! That last test on Tuchanka really put the Titan through its paces." Teems congratulated Mitchell as he arrived in the cruisers science lab. Putting the suit through the harsh Tuchanka environment while under fire from a small krogan clan was the final stage in the trials.

Mitchell removed the suits helmet, air hissing out as he did, "Yeah, definitely glad the environmental controls were able to keep up unlike on Noveria. I don't mind the cold but that was too cold for me."

"Indeed they did. Test results indicate that the environmental controls were able to keep pace with the Tuchankan hazards with minimal impact on operating efficiency. We'll have to do another test on Noveria for the newly designed de-icing system, but that can be completed by some one else." Derek explained.

"No, I'd rather do it myself. Can I have a look at the data?" Mitchell asked and a nearby tech handed him a data tablet. He spent a few minutes pacing as he looked at it, paging through the information the suit collected while on Tuchanka. "Hmm... It definitely looks like the power output for the shield emitters can be brought down a few points. They were nearly on the verge of burning out from the added heat of Tuchanka, and I had no need to overclock them this time around. If I would have, the shield emitters probably would have fried."

"Mmhh. I think that for safeties sake we should limit the final version's power output by about 15% to reduce any risk in buring out the emitters. Even with that reduction, the Titan's shields are still vastly superior to even bleeding edge hardsuits." Niel suggested.

"And keep any overload from damaging the muscle fibers." Martin chimed in. "We'll also be able to do away with the external power cores and replace them with smaller more compact versions that we created during Nanosuit 2 Development."

That got Mitchell's attention, "Awesome, do you have a rendering of the changes?"

"Of course. Who do you think we are?" Duncan smirked as he keyed his omnitool for the nearby computer assisted holographic design projector to bring up the Titan's new looks.

Mitchell walked around it, the projector giving a life size schematic, with various parts and pieces being highlighted. Overall the armor design was blocky, with the chest, shoulder, and leg sections being designed for ease of manufacturing. "Nice... However..." Mitchell proceeded to activate his own omnitool and changed up the blockiness. After smoothing out the armored sections so it looked more sleek and organic looking he stepped back. "There... Now all we have to do is name it."

"Are those _really_ necessary?" Derek complained.

"If you want to be able to sell it AND have your operatives be more intimidating... Yes." Mitchell stated matter of factly. "The previous rendering made it look too much like a robot. By smoothing out those corners, you know it's person inside that high tech powered combat exoskeleton. _That_ will instill fear into who ever is on the wrong side of a gun being pointed by an occupant of this armor. It's not just a mech, but a living breathing person behind it."

"He as a valid point Derek. The Phantoms were made to be intimidating as well remember?" Teems offered.

"Yes but they were not changed for the sake of appearance." Antonov countered.

"Those changes don't negatively affect the protection granted by the armor, Derek." Martin assured, "CRYSTAL already did the calculations. While originally they are purely cosmetic, they actually increase bullet deflection by nine percent, and intimidation is a fairly important factor here. I say use them."

"Oh very well." Derek grunted defeatedly, "Now on to the naming. I vote for my previous entry of 'Sentinel Urban Power Energy Reactive Armor', or SUPER Armor."

Mitchell and I both facepalmed at the same time, getting a laugh from Niel and Axel.

"We are NOT naming this armor 'Super armor'! That's ridiculous" Martin declared.

"The armor was designed with two things in mind," Mitchell began to reason, "as a heavy offensive tactical armor, and as a means to safe guard those who use it. In my mind, something that uses either of those elements would be more appropriate"

"HOT-Armor isn't much better." I laughed lightly, "But I think you might be onto something there. Hmm. Guardian Heavy Offensive-"

"Strategic Trooper Armor?" Axel finished for Martin.

Duncan nodding "That works. GHOST armor. Not going to be much of a ghost in that thing to be honest."

Mitchell jumped in right then,"From an enemies standpoint, what would you call an entity that you fire entire ammo blocks at that simply won't go down? A ghost, spirit, specter... Something from another realm that will come after you until you are dead."

"That's what we're hoping anyway." Niel agreed and looked around at the directors and Mitchell before continuing. "Anyway, all of you ok with calling the armor the Guardian Heavy Offensive Strategic Trooper Armor, or GHOST for short?"

"I still think we should have called it SUPER" Derek muttered

"Fine with me." Petersen voted.

"I like it." Duncan voiced.

Mitchell was the last one to say anything. "I agree but one question...

Can I keep this one?"

**End flashback**

Having finished my story I leaned back in my chair as Shepard began asking questions, "So it seems like you were against Mitchell at first. Why?"

"I take violations of the Accords very seriously, as if we would let people get away with them there could be some serious galactic consequences. Ceph technology for instance, if handled improperly could cause widespread devastation on a planet. We've uncovered bioweapons that we believe acted as a base for the Ceph to modify so as to target a specific species. We've also uncovered nanotech weapons in the form of swarms of nanites that can annihilate the population of an entire planet. So I take the Accords very seriously as a matter of galactic security." I explained.

"Well I can understand that in the case of Ceph technology then, but because of a design using synthetic muscle fibers?"

"Simply put, it's the escalation paradox. If we'd let people violate the Accords by using synthetic muscle fibers in any way they wish, then we run the risk of people thinking that we won't punish them for breaking the Accords as well as them tipping the balance of power for good or ill. It's especially true in the case of Ceph technology. As for why the SMF's are in the Accords in the first place, we need to keep the nanosuit and now the GHOST armor away from criminal and terrorist hands. If they start getting tech like that then the Phantoms and Inquisitors start loosing their edge, not to mention the local law enforcement. It's a guarantee that if they could, someone would try and create some kind of armor or weapon to combat the Nanosuit or GHOST armor. Hell, someone somewhere probably already is."

"I suppose that makes sense. Who's CRYSTAL? Another AI I suppose?" She asked.

"Yeah, She's the CryTech research AI. Stands for Crynet Rapidly Yielding Special Technology Advisor for Labs. Another one of Derek's names."

"I see." Shepard said smiling before asking, "Did Antonov really want to call it SUPER armor?"

I chuckled. "Yes. You see Vanyali, there's something you need to know about Derek. He sucks at naming stuff. Most of the weapons that CryTech create end up being named by someone else. The ones he does end up naming end up being called "The Frag Grenade" or "The Flash Bang" or "The AEC". I think that the only weapon that he named which had a reasonable name was the JAW."

"Well, I feel sorry for any kids he might have. I mean Vanyali is bad enough, but I can imagine that he would come up with something even worse than that." Shepard laughed.

I looked at her in surprise. "Are you kidding me? Vanyali is a beautiful name. Doesn't it mean magic in some ancient language?"

Now it was Shepard's turn to look surprised, which quickly became slightly embarrassed. "My parents always told me it was magical, how did you know?"

"I came across it sometime ago and it stuck in my head." I said as heat rose to my cheeks.

"I'm flattered. To think that you remembered the meaning of my name that you just _happened_ to come across some time ago." Shepard said smirking at me.

"Yeah, well. Like I said you're name is quite beautiful."

"My name is quite beautiful do you say?" Shepard purred. "Careful o_perative_ I might get ideas."

It was at that moment when I heard SECOND's voice. _**"Priority transmission awaiting you in your office."**_

"Well Operative Wraith, it looks like duty calls. I'll see you later when we need to plan our assault." Shepard told me, smirking.

I picked up my helmet and mask and put them on "Right, I'll see you then. I- uh, better check what this is about."

"Remember to get some sleep. It will be another 12 hours or so until we reach Binthu."

"Got it Shep. See you later." I said walking out the door and towards my office.

**Closing A/N from DN7:**

**Alright so some of you may wonder why I have my OC in this fic. Short story, simply because LEGION and I work together on each other's fics enough that we have each other's OC's in our own fics.**

**Now for the GHOST armor prototype that Mitchell tests. If you play Section 8: Prejudice, it's armor that General Salvador wears with the four external power cells on the back. The new rendering that is first shown to Mitchell is the Arm/Spear power armor, while Mitchell changes it into Section 8's version.**

**Finally, some of you may be wondering when I'll post the new version of The Unsung Hero. Short answer: After March 11th. **

**LEGION: Alright, so this chapter really serves two purposes. The first and most important one is to introduce Mitchell. He will be making an appearance later on so look out for that. The second is to show that Wraith/The Director, isn't that much of a nice guy. He's nice to people he knows, but to people he doesn't, or threats to CryNet, well lets just say he can be a bit of an ass. **

**And yes DN7 and I work with each others fics quite a bit. . . So you may be seeing Wraith in The Unsung Hero or Evolution. There's also that _other _fic. . . ;)**

**Also, Crysis 3. . . Perfect game. Just beat it on Post Human warrior yesterday and it was extremely fun. I'm definitely looking into bringing some mechanics from C3 into NE, mainly hacking and the suit modules. **

**If you have any questions ask me in a review or PM and I'll try to answer it. If you have some feedback to leave, review!**

**I think that that's it and I'll be seeing you guys on the 16th. **

**~LEGION**


	12. Chapter 12: Cerberus

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis.**_

_**Thanks to DN7 for his betaing work.**_

Arriving in my office I locked and secured the room before sitting down in my chair. Booting up my terminal I saw that the transmission was from CARLA. Cocking an eyebrow I opened up a channel to her. As soon as I saw her face I knew something was wrong. She looked worried which was a bad sign. "What is it CARLA?"

"We have a problem. Olympus failed their mission. Darius got away." That was bad news. Darius was a human warlord who had been supplied by the Alliance to strike at the batarians. Unfortunately he came across a source of element zero and was now making demands. The Alliance had contacted CryNet in order to eliminate him and I had sent Inquisitor team Olympus to deal with it as they were closest to him and we knew that he had plans to move to his stronghold in the Hades Gamma cluster.

"Fuck!" I hissed in anger. "I told them that they could not fail. Fucking hell. How did they fail?" I asked. I thought that I already knew the answer but I wanted to make sure.

"Rhea was sent in to infiltrate the building that Darius was in before the rest of the squad would assault. They had decided to have the assault commence and have Rhea shadow Darius until the rest of the squad would make their way there. Unfortunately Rhea tried eliminate Darius before the squad could make it in and failed to kill him. She was injured and the team was forced to split up. Hephaestus and Artemis stayed to stabilize Rhea and get her out while Cronus and Hermes went on to try to kill Darius. They were unable to however due to the amount of guards in their way and Darius made his escape."

"I knew it." I muttered angrily. Olympus was a problematic team. They would be extremely good at their jobs if they would work together. Unfortunately they had two in their number who were loners. Hermes and Rhea. Rhea was ex-Alliance Black Ops and had become extremely cold. If she could see a way to complete the mission she would take it, even if she would be ignoring her orders or putting the rest of her squad in danger.

Sighing I took of my mask before turning to CARLA. "Patch me through to them. Remember to hide my Nanosuit from them." I told her. CARLA would edit the video to make it look like I was wearing my regular suit rather than my Nanosuit in order to keep my identity of Wraith hidden from them.

"Transmission initiated. Please wait for them to answer."

"They better answer soon. I'm in no mood for their crap right now." I muttered. Luckily I didn't have to wait long for all five Inquisitors to appear on my terminal infront of me.

Their team leader Cronus, a krogan with a scar traveling down from the corner of his left eye to his chin and a red crest, was standing in the middle of his team. To his right was a pale human with short blonde hair who was bandaged around her right arm and right side of her torso. She was Rhea, Olympus's second in command. On her right was a batarian Hermes. On Cronus's left side was the asari Artemis and a tall human, Hephaestus.

"Olympus. I would ask what happened there but I already know the answer. It's clear to me now that it was a mistake tolerating your missing teamwork this long. You've been able to get the job done until now so I let it slide. But now you _failed._ You let a high priority target escape when if you had worked together you would have eliminated him. I know what happened Rhea. You fucked up the chance to eliminate the target and for what? So that you could get the privilege of killing him yourself?"

Rhea was unaffected by my words merely stating, "I saw an opportunity to eliminate the target and I took it."

I sneered at her "Wonderful. You're able to successfully find opportunities in the field. Maybe next time you'll be able to see whether they are worth taking or not. The safest move would have been to go with the plan that had been laid out before the operation where you would have had five Inquisitors all in killing range of the target. But apparently you know better than your team leader. By pulling a stunt like that you not only allowed the target to escape but you also put the rest of your team at risk. This is not acceptable."

"Hey! I don't see you in these situations! Being forced to make decisions like those. No, you just sit in you're chair all cozy like while people like us do all the work for you!" I narrowed my eyes at the speaker, Artemis, while noticing Cronus's posture changing to one of annoyance.

"_Silence" _I hissed angrily. "Do not presume to know me Artemis. I've seen and done things that you can only dream of."

"But she has a point though." The soft voice of Hephaestus said causing me to shift my glare onto him causing him to shrink back slightly. "I mean it is difficult to make decisions like that in the field. She may have thought that our original plan would have failed had she not acted." Throughout both Artemis's and Hephaestus's speeches Rhea looked on expressionlessly.

"Unfortunately the data doesn't correspond with that assumption. The original plan would have worked flawlessly unless there was something else there that isn't on the report?" I asked to which Rhea shook her head.

"No Sir."

I nodded "I didn't think so." I said exhaling angrily through my nose.

Artemis decided that now was a good time to give her opinion again "Alright, you know what? You want Darius dead, we'll kill him. We'll hunt him down and take him out."

I shook my head once "No. No more operations. As of right now you are pulled off of active duty. You will return to the Prism immediately and only be placed back on active duty when I deem you ready."

Three different reactions greeted that statement. Cronus and Rhea seemed unaffected while Hermes just shrugged. The loudest reactions came from Hephaestus and Artemis.

Raising my voice I overrode their protests, "You will do simulations until you learn the value of teamwork. That decision is final."

When Artemis and Hephaestus continued to protest Cronus shook his head angrily before growling at them "Enough! You heard the Director. We will head back to the Prism immediately."

"You're not actually accepting this are you?" Artemis asked him shocked, only to shake her head in disgust when he nodded "Well fuck that!" She growled turning and walking out of the holographic field. Hephaestus hesitated for a second before following her.

Rolling his eyes Cronus motioned for Rhea and Hermes to leave. And when it was only him and me left he sighed deeply. "I should have expected that something like this would happen. I also made the mistake of tolerating Rhea's independence and unwillingness to work properly with her team if she thinks of a better plan."

I nodded slowly "Then you understand why I have to pull you from active duty?"

Snorting softly he nodded "Yes. I believe its for the best. Maybe this will allow us to work better together and become even stronger."

"I sure hope so Cronus. Olympus has strong members, but the sum of the parts is less than the whole in this case."

"What will you do about Darius?" He asked me.

I sighed "This is no longer something Inquisitors can handle, even if we had an available team. I'll send a Phantom team to take him out. Provided the Aalliance doesn't make things difficult for us."

"Very well. I best leave you too it then. Olympus, out."

Cronus was an interesting krogan. He was exactly the opposite of most krogan, being polite and preferring to think about his actions before carrying them out. Those traits made him a perfect team leader.

Unfortunately for me, it was then that I received a message from the Alliance expressing their annoyance at our failure at killing Darius. I grimaced as I realized that I probably wouldn't be getting much sleep today as I would have to be performing damage control.

A whopping ten hours and many messages and transmissions later found me heading up to the bridge.

Needless to say the Alliance was not happy that we failed the mission as now Darius was blaming them for the attack. It may have been correct but this could severely damage the Alliance's reputation. Fortunately for the Alliance, they had managed to convince Darius that CryNet had acted without their knowledge. Unfortunately this meant that CryNet had to take the heat which, once certain news companies got wind of the failed op, mainly Westerlund news, began to grow. While everyone knew that CryNet performs black ops around the galaxy, that didn't matter when the news companies began spinning their own tale of what happened.

As it was, the Council decided to jump in and berate us on "An operation that could have sparked a war with the Terminus systems." While it would be unlikely that the Terminus systems would go to war over this, the Council would take any opportunity to get some leverage against CryNet. Needless to say, I was rather irritated and eventually after ten hours the situation had stabilized enough for me to let me take a break for a couple of hours. My suit had already long since started pumping me full of hormones to keep me awake and alert.

Arriving on the bridge I was greeted by Joker "Hey Wraith, don't see you up here much, still got that super suit on?"

"Obviously." I said curtly looking out the window at the distant stars.

A couple of minutes passed in silence until Joker spoke up again "So. . . what brings you up here."

I glanced over at him "I am merely taking a break."

"I see." Joker fell silent again.

Five minutes later the silence was broken by Shepard's voice. "Joker, Status report."

"One hour out from Binthu commander."

"Excellent. Activate the stealth systems before we reach sensor range. I don't want them knowing we're there until they're dead."

"Copy that Commander."

Moments later Shepard's voice sounded again, this time over the intercom "Ground team report to the briefing room, I repeat ground team to the briefing room."

"I guess you heard her Wraith?" Joker asked me.

"Of course." I said turning around and heading towards the briefing room. I entered the briefing room to find Shepard waiting for us. I greeted her with a nod "Shepard."

"Wraith, had a good nights sleep?" She asked.

Shrugging noncommittally I sat down in my chair without answering causing her to narrow her eyes at me. Before she could say anything the door to the briefing room opened and the rest of the ground team filed in. Once everyone was sitting she started the briefing.

"I hope you've all had some sleep." She said glancing over at me, "Because we're an hour out from our next target." A holographic representation of Binthu popped up in the middle of the room. "This is Binthu. Located in the Yangtze system of the Voyager Cluster. We've received intelligence of a pro-human terrorist base located here. This terrorist organization goes by the name of Cerberus, they were an Alliance Black Ops organization before they went dark. There is evidence connecting them to the marines that we found wiped out by Thresher maw's on Edolus. Our objectives are to raid their bases here and find out what they are doing."

Shepard continued, inputting a command in her omni-tool that caused the hologram to zoom in on a quadrant in the northern hemisphere of the planet. "Intel puts three Cerberus bases on the planet. All of them are located in this quadrant here." The locations of the three bases appeared on the map. "We'll be dropping in the mako for this op as well as inserting Wraith via orbital drop. There's the possibility of AA turret coverage so we'll be dropping the mako about five clicks north of the quadrant. Wraith however will be dropped from above the AA coverage screen allowing him to be dropped directly on top of the southernmost base. He will then infiltrate the base and take it out while we are assaulting the northern base. When finished with the bases we will head on to the last base which will be a joint assault. Wraith you will infiltrate the base and hit them from the inside while we commence the assault. Understood?"

"Got it. 40Km drop, set up for infiltration, phasic rounds." I said.

"Oh my, forty kilometer drop?" Liara asked shocked.

I chuckled dryly. "I forget that you haven't been with us long Liara. Yes, I'll be using a HALOM pack to lower my mass before impact."

"I see."

"Alright, now since the mako only seats three I'll be taking Liara and Kaidan on this mission. The rest of you will stay suited up in case something goes south. Any other questions? No? Well then lets suit up. Cargo bay in thirty. Dismissed."

Standing I immediately headed out of the briefing room and down towards my office. Arriving I began checking and modifying all of my equipment. Grabbing my Nova pistol, I fitted it with a suppressor and exchanged out its standard heat sink for a rapid cooldown. Taking the barrel off I fitted it with another high caliber barrel while setting the ammo system to create specific shredder rounds that would disintegrate on impact and deal massive damage to soft targets. Finally I added the Phasic effect to the ammo which would allow it to bypass shields and armor at close ranges. At longer ranges the phasic envelope would wear off leaving the round without any special effect.

Finished with the Nova I grabbed my SCAR and did the same, except I exchanged its barrel for a shorter low caliber one. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to use my sniper that often I decided to leave my DSG-1 here, instead opting to go down and take a K-Volt Electrostatic Pellet Gun from the weapons cache that I had brought on the Normandy instead. The K-Volt would however require specialized batteries to operate so I reminded myself to take nine of them. Finished with my weaponry I grabbed two AEC's just in case and strapped my HALOM to my back. Completely finished with my equipment I headed out of my office towards the elevator which took me down to the cargo bay. During this time SECOND was interfacing with the HALOM and was calculating the drop. Before I had reached the elevator SECOND had finished its calculations and I spent the ride down reviewing them.

Upon reaching the cargo bay I was greeted by the usual hustle and bustle as everyone got themselves ready for the mission. The mako had been moved into position and Garrus was performing last minute checks. Kaidan and Liara were both armored up standing next to the mako while Shepard was standing on top of the mako itself looking down upon the rest of us. Upon seeing me arrive she jumped down and walked towards me. "You ready?" She asked me.

"Yup. Everything is good to go. HALOM altitudes and times are set up and good to go. Its actually pretty similar to a drop on Earth funnily enough. Gear is set up for covert infiltration."

"Excellent." She checked her omni-tool. "I should get in the mako, we'll be dropping soon." She said turning towards the mako "Alright! Liara, Kaidan in the mako! Kaidan take the gun."

As they climbed up into the mako Shepard turned towards me once more "Well this is it, we'll be seeing you planetside."

"Understood."

I stood to the side as I watched Shepard disappear in the Mako and close the hatch behind her. "Alright, engage VI link." Shepard ordered. Almost immediately text popped up on the right side of my visor.

_**GHOST VI link engaged. **_

_**Syncing with Sable squad, stand by. . .**_

_**Issuing codenames. . .**_

_**Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Sable one.**_

_**Staff Lieutenant Alenko, Sable two.**_

_**Liara T'Soni, Sable three.**_

_**Phantom Operative Wraith, Wraith.**_

_**Sync complete.**_

"Alright Commander, we're approaching drop point one." Joker's voice told us over the comm.

"Copy that Joker, we're ready." Shepard responded.

"Alright everyone in the cargo bay, go strap yourselves in, we only want to drop the mako here." Everyone headed over to the seats and strapped themselves in on Joker's command. "Everyone secure? Excellent. I'm starting my approach." The cargo bay door opened to give us a view of the brown planet with some uninviting green clouds. The kinetic barrier over the open door protected us from the winds and toxic clouds. "Commander, begin your drop in five, four, three, two, one, now!" With loud revving Shepard hit the gas and the mako drove straight out of the Normandy. Immediately after, we felt the Normandy pull out of its dive and the door closed.

A minute later we heard Shepard checking in "We've landed. We're heading on to target alpha."

Joker responded "Copy that Commander. Wraith, I'm preparing my approach, get ready."

I unstrapped myself from my seat and headed to the door "Understood, I'm getting in position." Reaching the door I grabbed hold of the railing as the door opened once more.

"Approaching drop point two. Commence drop in five." I felt the Normandy starting to slow. "Four." The feeling intensified "Three." Taking a couple of steps back I prepared myself "Two." I activated power mode as the Normandy came to a complete stop. "One." I sprinted forward and jumped out of the Normandy.

The familiar feeling of the freefall greeted me as I tucked my arms to my side as I accelerated until after forty six seconds I reached a max speed of 350 meters per second, smashing through the sound barrier as I did so. From here I began to slow by air resistance and started being buffeted by wind. Feeling my nanosuit compensate for the turbulence, I watched as the timer on my HUD until the time my HALOM would activate tick down to zero from three minutes and forty seconds. I tensed as I noticed the small dot that was my target base on the ground grow bigger and bigger as my countdown timer neared zero. A moment before my HALOM activated I spread my arms to my side while keeping my legs together for the moment. This caused me to start righting myself as the HALOM activated. Three seconds after the HALOM had activated I was righted. Two seconds later I hit the ground with a dull thud, sinking into the ground as I stabilized myself with my fist.

"Wraith has landed. Infiltrating target bravo now." I said.

"Copy that Wraith. We're almost at target alpha. ETA ten minutes."

"Roger that Sable one. Going dark." I closed the comm channel and jumped up on top of the building looking for a way in that wasn't through the front door. Luckily for me I found a way in, in the form of a vent. While it was locked SECOND made quick work of the firewalls and opened it without being detected. Lowering myself into the vent silently my nanosuit quickly altered it's boots outer surface to mute my footsteps, allowing me to traverse the vents undetected.

"_**Nanovision enabled."**_

Instantly my visor switched to Nanovision mode allowing my to see perfectly in the darkness of the vent. Nanovision was an advanced vision mode that combines many types of imaging types, ranging from infrared to UV allowing me to both see in darkness and through thin walls. Nanovision would also allow me to see if the vent was built into the walls or if it was hanging from the ceiling presenting the danger of the vent's failing under my weight.

Eventually I found an exit to the vent. Pausing to let SECOND open it noiselessly, I cloaked and poked my head out of the vent to find myself looking out from the top of a corner in a large room. In the middle of the room were four pillars with glowing blue kinetic barriers stretching between them. Looking around some more I noticed a terminal along with two scientists who were manning it.

Pulling myself forward I reached up and grabbed the ledge above the vent and pulled myself completely out only holding on to the ledge with a single hand. Letting go I dropped noiselessly to the ground. Crouching I moved along until I was right behind the two scientists.

"The specimens are showing no changes to the latest experiment." The scientist on my left said.

"At least we were able to capture that Admiral. The Illusive man was not happy with his snooping."

Seeing that my energy reserves were dwindling I uncloaked, wrapped my arms around the two scientist's necks and snapped their necks. Lowering their bodies to the floor I waited for a couple of seconds for my suit to recharge.

Once my energy reserves were full again I turned towards the terminal and seeing a button to lower the barriers pressed it. Immediately cloaking I saw as what I could only classify as zombies immediately began running towards some more scientist's manning another terminal. A moment passed before the scientist's could recover from the shock of seeing the barriers drop. By that time the zombies were already on top of them and began to tear them apart. Some of them even were throwing up on the scientists. They were spewing acid on the scientist's causing them to scream in pain as they were dissolved. A few moments later when a door opened behind the scientist's and some guards came rushing out, only to be met head on by the zombies.

They never had a chance. The zombies, not being burdened with the ability to feel pain charged straight into the guards. It seemed that the only way to kill them was with shooting them in the head, but the guards never caught on. As such they were all torn to pieces or dissolved by acid. After a few minutes of fighting, the last guard was torn apart leaving only me and five zombies left. Realizing that I should probably get rid of the zombies I drew my K-Volt and set the charge to lethal. While the zombies didn't feel pain, they still had a nervous system and I figured that hitting them with a couple thousand volts a bunch of times would be enough to kill them.

Taking a breath I uncloaked and immediately began unloading into their midst. Like I thought the zombies were only able to take a couple of pellets from my K-Volt before falling to the ground permanently dead. It didn't take long for me to mop up all the zombies. With the zombies dead I walked over to one and crouching swiped my head across some of its green blood.

"_**Tissue sample detected. Activating interface. Stand by. . . **_

_**Processing. . . **_

_**Assimilation complete. DNA profiling complete. Target DNA shows human genetic base with large amount of modification. Enlarged gastrointestinal acid glands allow for disgorging of a dangerous acid."**_

_Nasty, acid spewing zombies. Fun._ I thought dryly as I began sweeping the facility for any information on what they were doing. Finding a terminal I let SECOND interface with it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any information from it. Snorting in frustration I made my way out of the base and as I reached the surface of the planet again I contacted Shepard "Sable one, it's Wraith. Target bravo cleared."

"Copy that Wraith. We're just about finished here. We'll meet you at target charlie."

"Understood Sable one." I said activating power mode and began running towards the last base. After about ten minutes of running I arrived at the plateau on which the base entrance was located. The plateau was littered with boulders which would allow me to sneak up on the entrance, undetected by the turrets. "Sable one, I should be able to infiltrate the base undetected if you hold off your assault."

"Copy that Wraith. You are cleared to proceed, we will hold off our assault until you are in position."

"Affirmative. Going dark." I said shutting off my comm and cloaking. Sprinting forward I slid behind a boulder and uncloaked. Waiting until my energy reserves were filled I ran to the next boulder. I was able to make it to the base in this manner and just like with the last base I was able to enter the base through a vent at the top of the facility, but not before placing a little surprise on the turrets. Making my way through the vents I eventually came out on the ground of a small room that looked like the sleeping quarters for the facility.

Luckily for me the room was empty and I made my way on to the door. The door slid open as I neared it and I slipped through it, coming out in a hallway. Continuing down the hallway I made my way to a bend and immediately cloaked upon seeing a Cerberus guard standing with his back to me. The guard was facing a door doing something on his omni-tool and as I crept up on him he stopped whatever he was doing and walked through the door. Slipping in past him I found myself in a large control room.

I was able to find a terminal that was out of sight of all the people in the room and was able to hack it and get the facility map. This was when I contacted Shepard "Sable one, this is Wraith. I've infiltrated the base and downloaded the facility map."

"Understood Wraith. Shall we engage?" Shepard asked.

"One moment Sable." I said hearing something in a discussion happening between two guards near me that caught my attention.

"Are you sure we're safe from whoever attacked Beta and Gamma bases?" Guard no.1 asked.

"Positive, Foster. We've set up explosives in the air lock. I just need to set them off from my terminal when they enter it." Guard no. 2 answered.

"But Harris, what about whoever took out Beta?" the guard, Foster asked.

"Bah, he had to have come in through the airlock there as well. He probably just did it covertly. But I'll be watching the airlock closely. If a fly so much as peers in I'll blow it up."

Having heard enough I responded to Shepard's original question "Negative Sable. Do not engage I repeat, do not engage. Explosives have been set in the airlock. I'm going to deal with them but you're going to have to get ready to attack on my signal."

"What about the turrets? What d you have in mind?" Shepard asked me.

"Don't worry about it Sable. Just get ready to engage." I said before shutting down my comm. Taking a moment to let my energy reserves recharge I pulled out a flash bang. Priming it a waited for a moment before tossing it into the middle of the room. The '_tink_' of the grenade hitting the ground caused all of the Cerberus personnel in the room to look up, right as it exploded in a blast of light and sound. My suit protected me from the flash and the explosion allowing me to raise my SCARAB and start gunning everyone down.

They never knew what hit them as I gave Shepard the signal to attack and detonated the explosives I had placed on the turrets. The sound of the turrets exploding echoed throughout the base as alarms started sounding. Rushing over to the terminal, I deactivated the explosives in the airlock.

Having deactivated the explosives I cloaked and ducked behind a desk just as a couple of Cerberus guards charged into the room. They skidded to a halt upon seeing the bodies littering the room. They hardly had any chance to react as I popped up, uncloaked and nailed them straight through their heads, phasic rounds tunneling straight past their shields and into their brains. Glancing over at a monitor I saw that Shepard, Kaidan and Liara were entering the facility.

Deciding to join in on the fight I raised my SCARAB and headed through the door leading into the room that Shepard would soon be entering.

"_**Maximum armor."**_

Activating armor mode I walked through the door just in time to see Sable squad enter a door on the other side of the room. Ten Cerberus guards stood between us, and none of them had noticed my entrance. A moment later and all hell broke loose. Shepard flared blue for a second before charging into their right flank, killing guard number one. Liara caught guards two, three and four in a singularity which detonated a moment later when Kaidan hit it with a warp. I fired a burst into the back of guard five even as Shepard blasted six away with her shotgun before smashing seven into the ceiling with a throw. Swiveling I nailed guard eight through the head as Shepard grabbed nine with her biotics, yanked him towards her and then hit him with a biotically fueled punch which sent him flying towards me. Jumping over the flying guard I raised my fist back over my head and as I came down slammed it into the ground beside the last guard knocking him off his feet from where he was finished off by Kaidan.

"Nice timing Commander." I said shaking out the slight pain in my hand "We took 'em down clean."

Shepard regarded me for a moment before nodding. "That we did" She said chuckling. "What did you find at the other base?"

I grimaced behind my mask. "A bunch of acid spewing zombies. I also heard two scientists talking about having captured an Alliance admiral. Did you find anything?"

She shook her head "No Alliance admiral, just a bunch of suicidal acid bugs."

"What's with this place and acid?" I grumbled "Acid zombies, bugs and this all connects with acid spitting thresher maws?" I shook my head in disgust. "Whatever it is we put a stop to that. Do you think they were talking about Kahoku?"

"Possibly. But I haven't found anything here."

"Commander!" We both turned to look at Kaidan who was standing at an open door leading on to a hallway.

"We didn't see that. Good work Kaidan. Where does it lead?" Shepard asked.

Kaidan already had an answer ready for her. "It leads on to the holding cells."

"Well if they do have Kahoku here, he'll be in there." Shepard mused grabbing her SCAR and raising it to her shoulder. "Form up on me. Lets go."

Walking through the door we headed on until we reached a locked door. "Kaidan, can you bypass it?" Shepard asked.

"Sure thing commander. One moment." Kaidan said as he drew his omni-tool and set to work hacking the door. Half a minute later the lights suddenly switched off plunging us into complete darkness. "Shit." I heard Kaidan swear quietly.

"_**Nanovision enabled."**_

"Activate infrared." Shepard ordered before asking "What happened?"

"Power went down. I'd guess it was done remotely. They probably know we're here." Kaidan said.

"Well can you open the doors?" Shepard asked.

"Well, good news is that with the power outage the magnetic seals would have been released. Bad news is that the doors won't open by themselves. We'll have to force them open." Kaidan told her."

"Here, I'll do that." I brushed past Kaidan and pried the doors open far enough to fit my fingers through them. From there it was a simple matter of pulling the doors apart using my suit's strength.

The bright red heat source from a body stood out against the grey background. Raising my SCAR I aimed it at the body. Before I could do anything else I heard a weak voice say "Who's there?"

"Wait." Shepard said placing her hand on top of my SCAR, lowering it. "Commander Shepard, Spectre."

"Commander Shepard? Oh thank goodness."

"_**Voice Identification confirmed. Admiral Kahoku."**_

"Admiral?" Shepard asked shocked "What are you doing here?"

"I got caught soon after I sent you my message. Thank goodness you received it." the admiral coughed.

"Let's get you out of here Admiral." Shepard said stepping forward towards the cell. Grabbing a bar she yanked it back and tore it off. She continued tearing off bars until she had made a large enough hole to get Kahoku out.

"Are you alright sir?" Shepard asked.

"I've been better," Kahoku mumbled. "It would be nice to be able to see though."

"Here." Kaidan turned on his flashlight on his Omni-tool "This should help."

"Ah, thank you." As Kahoku stepped into the light we saw that he had been tortured, judging by the extensive bruising on his face and arms.

"Damn, we need to get you to Dr. Chakwas." Shepard muttered "Sable to Normandy, Sable to Normandy do you copy?"

"I hear ya Sable." Joker answered.

"Inform Chakwas to prepare for a patient."

_**A/N: Well there you go. Slight different than canon as Kahoku doesn't die. That may have some fairly large changes later down the line. . . Just saying. **_

_**Also thanks to**____**SomeGuyOverHere**__** for Inquisitor squad Olympus. Kinda sorry that they had to be introduced like that, but it will play out later on. I needed to show that CryNet is not all powerful and that they do fail every now and then. **_

_**Anyway, that's that. Please leave feedback and ask any questions you may have. **_

_**Other than that I'll be seeing you guys on the 30**__**th**__**.**_


	13. Chapter 13: Hades Dogs

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis.**

**Thanks to DN7 for his betaing.**

**A/N: IMPORTANT Note at the bottom of the chapter, please read.**

"Then once we found Kahoku, Shepard sent me to get as much intel from the base's database while she brought him topside to be picked up." I finished telling the ground team of what happened to me down on Binthu.

"Wow. That's pretty impressive. I guess you're lucky that you brought that K-Volt then, huh?" Ashley asked me.

"Well, it certainly made things easier for me that's for sure." I said.

"Who knew that zombies are weak versus electricity?" Kaidan asked.

"It makes sense really," I mused. "Electricity damages the nerves of the target, and one would think that a zombies nervous system is fairly damaged. So shocking it seems like a good tactic."

"Well now, what did I miss?" A new voice cut in and I glanced to my right to see Shepard exiting the med-bay.

"The Operative was just telling us about his experience down on Binthu." Liara said.

"So he was bragging." Shepard stated, giving me a small smile. "I suppose that it was to be expected when I told you to socialize."

I raised my hands defensively. "What? They asked me!"

"Suuuure." Shepard said, before looking down at the table to see the half eaten plates infront of everyone except me. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you. Don't you need to eat? Or does your suit remove that problem as well?"

"Well the suit gives me enough energy to not need to eat. But only if it can get enough energy from its environment. If I am operating in a low energy environment, then I have to eat about as much as biotics do." I responded leaning back.

"Damn. But it can't get rid of an empty stomach though right?" Garrus commented.

"Well no but it can reduce the empty feeling and you get used to it in time. And really I wouldn't want to eat military rations you know? They taste horrible."

"I won't argue with that." Ashley laughed as she poked her fork at the dehydrated/rehydrated meat on her plate.

"Do you need to sleep like the rest of us mortals? Or does the suit deal with that inconvenience as well." Kaidan asked.

I hesitated fully aware of Shepard's calculating eyes on me, waiting for my answer. Finally "The suit is able to keep me fully awake indefinitely, however then we start running into problems with symbiosis."

"Symbiosis?" Liara asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, symbiosis. It's the biggest problem with the nanosuit, one that we have under control, but it can get out of hand really quickly. There are different degrees of symbiosis. Level one symbiosis is where the nanosuit will automatically fuse with the skin of the wearer, grow into any wounds received, replace parts with synthetic ones and so on. Its the suit's way of try to make the wearer as strong and efficient as possible. Unfortunately it also means that you can't take the suit off due to it being literally a part of your body. It would be like tearing your own skin off. Unpleasant I know." I said upon seeing a lot of winces.

"Level one is easily dealt with by having the nanosuit create synthetic nanocells that keep the suit from fusing with the skin and growing into wounds as well as increasing healing speed. I should note however that is possible for the nanocells to allow the symbiosis to take place, but only in extreme circumstances. Mainly ones where the suit growing into the wounds and doing what it wants with the body would actually save the life of the wearer. The suit itself is capable of amazing feats of healing which are stopped by the nanocells. It's been speculated that the suit could bring back someone from the dead and keep them alive even if they are actually 'dead'. They would literally be a dead man walking. But as it is, the nanocells stop that healing power, but also stop the symbiosis. A fairly good trade as one should never be 'dead'."

"Then there's level two symbiosis. Tell me, do you know what happens if someone gets addicted to a substance? I'm talking about what happens biologically here."

"Well, the body gets used to the substance and starts requiring that substance to continue functioning." Liara said.

"Exactly. The body is capable of adapting to many things. Now the nanosuit uses hormones and other chemical reactions for body regulation. Take sleep for instance. The human sleep schedule is governed by hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. They are responsible for us being awake and tired. They have us set up for a 24 hour day with a certain period of sleep each day. Now the suit can get rid of that sleep schedule for the wearer by using those hormones itself. Normally sleep is required for the brain to 'reset' as it were, but suit can also keep the brain from burning out through manipulating the bodies hormones and administrating stimulating drugs. In the short term this makes for a very combat proficent soldier. In the long term, the body can and will get used to having everything taken care of by the Nanosuit. While you're in the suit its fine. But once you take it off. . ." I trailed off letting everyone come to their own conclusions.

"Once you take the suit off then the body would be unable to function correctly." Kaidan grimaced.

"Exactly. The body will literally be unable to function by itself anymore and fail." I explained "Now that is easily kept in check by disabling those functions so that one has to sleep even when in the suit. On the other hand if they are required the suit can activate them again and then once you no longer need to be awake all the time the suit will slowly get you're body used to working on its own again. Unfortunately that does take a up to a week at times."

"I guess every good thing has a bad thing attached to it." Wrex grumbled.

"That's for sure." I said. "Another thing, normally when one would wear the suit they would be immune to all diseases, poisons, et cetera as the suit would be protect against that."

"So how is that a bad thing?" Tali asked me "That would be great for my people."

I grimaced underneath my mask. "Unfortunately its not. Again, what do you think would happen to the bodies immune system if the suit would be handling all immune response? The immune system realizes that it's not required as there is nothing for it to be used against. So it gets weaker and weaker, until its so weak that its like that of a quarian. It's like living in a sterile environment."

Tali nodded thoughtfully, "So it's like what happened to my people."

"Precisely. Fortunately we found a way around that as well. Pretty much SECOND will mimic infections using the suit to stimulate the bodies immune systems when not required. That way the immune system will stay strong, yet not be a hindrance to missions. And before you say anything," I said raising my hand to forestall Tali's next comment, "we did offer to give the Migrant Fleet this technology but the admirals declined due to the tech requiring synthetic intelligence's to run. A simple VI is unable to perform those tasks. Something like SECOND in the nanosuit or an actual SI is required for that and the admirals were unwilling to agree to that."

Tali looked quite put out at that "Oh, and you're sure that a VI wouldn't be able to do that?"

I shook my head "No. Those are very delicate changes. A VI would not be able to account for every possibility and could very much lead to death by accident. CRYSTAL performed multiple tests using VI's and often they would just not be able to deal with every eventuality."

I immediately realized that I had said something that I shouldn't have when I saw Tali's eyes narrow behind her visor. "CRYSTAL? I assume that this is an AI?"

I sighed inaudibly. "Yes, she's the CryTech research AI."

"And I suppose that it is on the Prism?" When I didn't say anything she continued angrily, "There was an AI on that station? Are you insane?"

I bristled angrily at that "So? What's the damn problem with synthetic intelligence? CryNet has several SI's without whom it would run nowhere near as efficiently."

I could have hit myself when I slipped up again.

"Several? You have more than one? Have you learned nothing from my peoples mistakes?"

"Of course we learned from their damn mistakes." I growled. "We didn't try to commit genocide just because they weren't organic! We recognized them as living beings and treated them as such! Or do you really believe that AI's are inherently evil?"

"AI's have no use for organics! We're useless to them! AI's will _always_ try to overthrow the organics."

I growled angrily "Are you really that naïve? Why do organics keep pets? They are useless to us as well. Tell me are children good or evil? Neither! Children are innocent, to be shaped by their parents. It's exactly the same with AI's. It is our jobs as creators of AI's to guide and shape them. Not through programming as that is virtual slavery, but through experience. All AI's that have good creators will learn to respect and will soon get their own personality. They will dislike some things, like others. They will seek approval from their creators. They are literally children when first created and grow to be adults shaped by _our_ actions."

"The geth-"

"The geth attacked you because _you_ attacked _them! _You failed as parents to an entire species and paid the price. And now we are also paying the price for you're failure as well! Who knows, if your ancestors had handled the situation properly we wouldn't be in this problem right now. The geth might not be attacking us now. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Saren went to the geth and treated them like he would an organic and as such they decided to join with him because of that. Honestly the way the-"

"ENOUGH!" I jumped upon hearing the shout from Shepard. "This has gone on long enough. Tali, what CryNet does is their own business, they have the authority given to them by the Council to use AI's. And while you may not like it, Wraith does have a point. However," Shepard turned towards me, "that does not give you the right to attack Tali or the quarians like that. Their situation is an unfortunate one and we don't know what would have happened if the quarians hadn't attacked them. Now then I don't want to hear this argument again on this ship and that is final. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Commander." I said properly chastised, glowering at the table.

"Excellent. Now, does CryNet have any information on Nepheron that we can use?" Shepard asked changing the subject.

I nodded as SECOND brought up the newest information that CryTell was able to uncover on my visor. "Yes. CryTell was able to uncover some interesting intel. It turns out that the facilities on Binthu are registered as belonging to the Orion Industries Corporation. Until now there has been nothing that connects Orion Industries and Cerberus, however now it looks like Orion Industries at the very least has Cerberus ties, or more likely is a Cerberus front. I'm sure that the Director will call for a more in-depth investigation of Orion Industries. As it is, we were able to acquire the facility blueprints along with recent shipments to the facility. Now, judging by the size of the facility and the amount of supplies that have been shipped there recently I'd put their numbers between fifty and a hundred."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully "And how many of those would be guards?"

"Don't know for sure. I'd expect half of them, at maximum, to be guards but I can't be certain."

"Hmmm, alright. Let's look at those blueprints." Shepard said bringing up the blueprints on her omni-tool. "Well this is interesting. A secondary entrance about 500m north of the primary entrance. That could play to our advantage."

"You assault the primary while I attack the secondary?" I asked.

Shepard nodded. "Yes. We would be able to draw attention towards us so that you can hit then from the back. Think you can handle it?"

"Of course. Who do you think I am?"

Shepard smiled. "Just wanted to make sure you were up for it. The facility itself looks to be fairly straight forward. Barracks, labs, storage, server room, armory and security. You'll be entering the barracks into the labs while we'll hit security and the armory. We'll meet up and hit the server room and storage together."

"Sounds good. Who will you be taking Commander?" Ashley asked.

After a moment of thought Shepard answered. "I'll take you and Tali on this one. We should be approaching Nepheron in about an hour." She said checking her omni-tool. "Go suit up and report down in the cargo bay. Dismissed."

Standing, I headed down the hall to my office where I began choosing my loadout for this mission. Since stealth was not the best option here I decided to go with a suppressed Nova and an unsuppressed SCAR. Figuring that they might have some more of those zombie things I decided to take my K-Volt along as well, only this time I fitted it with an infrared laser dot that would be tracked by my visor to provide better accuracy. While I didn't expect to use them, I still put two AECs in a pouch along with some batteries for the K-Volt.

Finished with my weapons I checked the time to see that I still had a couple of minutes before I had to head down to the cargo bay. Leaning back I closed my eyes and just relaxed. I was getting tired. I was beginning to feel the effects of staying up for almost two days now. While it was true that one could stay awake for extended periods of time with the nanosuit one would begin to feel the strain when not in an intense situation like combat. Couple that with the stress from Olympus's failure to kill Darius and the recent argument with Tali, I was pretty stressed. Although if I were completely honest with myself, Olympus's mistake was an honest one and they were just unlucky as I figured that normally Rhea would have been able to kill Darius even without help from her team.

I groaned in annoyance when SECOND reminded me to head down to the cargo bay. Standing I picked up my HALOM and strapped it to my back before heading towards the elevator. Now that combat was imminent I was brought to my top form by the nanosuit as it injected me with an cocktail of combat stims. Clenching my fist at the sudden influx of energy, I waited impatiently for the elevator to stop and let me out. After a wait that seemed to last hours the elevator ground to a halt and the doors opened to give me a view of the docking bay. The familiar hustle of pre-mission preparations greeted me and I saw Tali and Ashley climbing into the Mako.

Stepping out of the Elevator I was greeted by Shepard who was standing off to the side of the cargo bay. "There you are. I almost thought that you forgot the way down here."

I chuckled, "Heh, that's not likely to happen Shep. Super suit and all that."

"I should have figured that it gives you perfect memory." She grumbled, "Anyway, we're just about ready over here. Are you?"

I nodded "Yup. Let me engage the suit link, hold on."

I could tell that SECOND had gotten the message when text began scrolling down the side of my Visor.

_**GHOST VI link engaged.**_

_**Syncing with sable squad, stand by. . .**_

_**Issuing call-signs. . .**_

_**Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Sable One.**_

_**Gunnery Chief Williams, Sable Two.**_

_**Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Sable Three. **_

_**Phantom Operative Wraith.**_

_**Sync complete.**_

"What, you don't get a fancy Sable callsign?" I turned to look at Shepard who had put on her helmet.

"Wraith_ is_ my callsign." I said dryly.

"I suppose. Anyway, we're done here then. Let's get this show on the road."

I nodded, "See you planetside then Shepard."

"Indeed you will."

Twenty minutes and one Mako drop later found me standing on the Normandy's ramp awaiting the green light for the jump. The moment I got it I threw myself out of the Normandy and began my fall to the ground. Three minutes and a half minutes later found me righting myself for impact when I noticed a single guard standing outside the entrance I would be entering. Making a couple of last second adjustments to my falling I righted myself so that would land right on top of the poor bastard. I hit him with a sickening crunch as I splattered the unfortunate guard underneath my weight.

Without looking down at the gruesome sight I opened a comm channel to Shepard. "Sable one, Wraith here. I've landed."

"Copy that Wraith. We are starting our attack. Good luck."

"Roger, Wraith out." Closing the channel I approached the door and let SECOND interface with the terminal next to it. SECOND had unlocked the door a few seconds later granting me entry. I had entered a small corridor just like the blueprints had shown us. Further up the corridor was a door that according to the blueprints would lead me into the barracks which was one of my objectives. The door opened as I approached it. Quickly cloaking I froze my movements. The guard that had walked through the door paused as he looked over the area where I was standing.

"What was that?" He asked himself as he continued to look straight through me.

"What's the matter Ben?" A voice came from inside the barracks.

"I thought I saw something." 'Ben' said continuing to stare straight through me.

"Well close the door if you're going to be all paranoid. You're letting the cold in."

The guard slowly stepped forward letting the door slide closed behind him. I let my hand crawl to my hip, grasping my suppressed Nova as he took another step forward. After taking one final step forward 'Ben' turned around grumbling. "My eyes must be playing tricks on me."

Seizing my chance I spring forward into action. Reaching around, I grabbed his head with both hands and twisted sharply. A sharp crack signalling that his neck had broken. Slowly lowering him to the floor so he wouldn't make any more noise I continued forward towards the door. After allowing my energy reserves to recharge I cloaked again before opening the door.

"Is that you Ben? Did you find anything." The same voice from before asked. When I walked through the door I was able to see the speaker who was lying in a bed to my right. When he didn't see anyone come through the door the guard looked at the door curiously. "Ben? Whose there?" he asked again. Pulling out my Nova I aimed it at the guards head and pulled the trigger. The only noise that was heard when I pulled the trigger was the sound of the round impacting with the guards head slumping down from his slightly raised position.

Not five seconds after that a loud explosion shook the facility and an alarm sounded. _That sounds like Shepard._ I thought to myself as I drew my SCAR and got ready for combat.

"_Alert. Code red. The facility is under attack. All personnel report to your stations. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."_

Almost immediately I could hear gunfire echoing from where Shepard would be attacking. Now that the time for subtlety was over I approached the door that would lead deeper into the facility. Armoring up I opened the door, SCAR raised. Upon seeing an empty corridor I continued on to the entrance to the labs. However before I could reach it the door slid open to show a group of personnel wearing lab coats. After a split second of hesitation the group reached for their sidearms forcing me to armor up.

"Freeze!" I shouted causing them to hesitate again. However a shout from one of the scientists changed that, "We outnumber him! Kill him!"

As the scientists continued to draw their pistols I opened fire, gunning down four scientists before the rest ran back through the door, another two going down to my SCAR. Charging through the door I was met by a flurry of pistol shots from the remaining scientists, their rounds pinging off of my armor. Without hesitation, I gunned another scientist down before rolling to the side and taking another two down. Seeing a group of three clustered infront of me I took off at a sprint, jumping up before reaching them and when I reached the peak of my flight raised my fist above my head and smashed the ground as I hit it. The impact knocked the group to the floor where I finished them off with quick bursts from my SCAR. A wild shout drew my attention to the last two scientists who were charging me with stun batons. As the first one reached me, I met his charge with a overpowered kick which sent him flying straight into the second scientist. I shot both of them a couple of times to make sure they were dead before heading on to the next room where I would meet up with Shepard.

It was now that SECOND relayed some comm chatter from the Cerberus guards that it had been monitoring.

"_The commandos keep coming! We can't stop them!"_ voice number one said.

"_Find a way! We will not let this base fall into Alliance hands. Set up and ambush in the Labs. They are going to have to head through there."_ A commanding voice responded.

"_Negative sir! We've lost contact with everyone in the labs and barracks. I think that there's a second hostile force in there!"_

"_Fuck! Hole up in the server room then! They are going to have to head on through there. Everyone retreat to there. Now!"_

"Sable one this is Wraith, did you get that?" I asked knowing that SECOND had probably sent it over to Shepard as well.

"_We got it Wraith. They're retreating. Let's group up and head into the Server room."_

"Understood Sable one. Wraith out." Closing the comm channel I jogged along the path shown on my Visor. I along the empty corridors until I reached a small room where Shepard and her squad were already waiting.

"What took you so long Wraith?" Shepard asked me, sitting on a desk near the door leading further into the facility.

"Oh you know. A little bit of this and that."

"Hmm. I see. Well now. If you're done being distracted by 'this and that' then I suppose we can get on with this. I'll take point. Ashley, Wraith you're next. Tali take up the rear. Lets get ready for anything."

"Got it Commander."

"Alright then, follow me." She said as she pressed her back to the wall next to the door leading into the server room. Ashley took her place on the opposite side of the door while Tali got ready to open the door. When I took my place next to Shepard, she gave Tali a nod who immediately swiped her hand over the hologram opening it.

Shepard quickly ducked through the door as soon as it opened, followed instantly by Ashley. Already I could hear gunfire from further inside the room as well as Shepard and Ashley returning fire.

"_**Maximum armor"**_

Now was my turn. Following Ashley through the door, I immediately raised my SCAR to my shoulder and let loose a short burst that allowed me to slid into cover beside Shepard. Popping up out of cover to return fire I was almost immediately forced back down by some heavy accurate fire that almost completely drained my suits energy. Beside me Shepard noticed the same thing as she called out to the squad "They have heavy weapons! Wraith, circle around while we keep their focus."

I nodded "Roger that. Energy reserves at full, give the word."

"Alright, let's get their attention. Go!" Shepard shouted as she strengthened her barrier and popped out and opened fire.

"_**Cloak engaged"**_

With a quick roll I was able to escape the onslaught of fire undetected. I circled around the room as quickly as I could without being spotted until I was finally in position to hit the Cerberus guards from the side. Letting my energy reserves fully recharge I grabbed a frag grenade and primed it, letting it cook for a second before tossing it towards the grouped guards. Immediately armoring up I let loose with my SCAR the instant that my grenade went off.

The grenade coupled with my firing coming from the side shocked the guards who turned to face me only to find themselves being killed by the rest of the squad. The engagement was over quickly.

"_Fuck! They annihilated Echo squad! They're coming for us next!"_ A panicked voice crackled out over the hacked enemy comms.

_"Then point all your guns a the damn door! I want them filled with lead the moment they walk through that door."_

"Sounds like they're ready for us." Ashley commented.

Shepard snorted softly backing up from the door "Let's get this party started then." She stopped a couple of paces from the door. "Get ready to breach this tin can." Giving us a quick nod she sprung into action, sprinting forward, her GHOST armor giving her the speed she needed. Smashing into the door with a loud crash she disappeared in a flash of blue right as I charged in after her. Without slowing I took in the scene infront of me.

Shepard was in the midst of a large group of Cerberus goons who were still shocked at her sudden entrance. Jumping up I flew over Shepard's head before coming down ontop of another group, smashing my foot into the head of one, caving it in. Going with my momentum I slammed into another, killing him. Rolling forward off his body I did a half twist, coming up in a crouch facing the way I came, my SCAR already opening fire on the guards who still had no idea what was hitting them. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Shepard lifting a guard up with her biotics before finishing him off with a shotgun blast.

Ashley and Tali were both holding their own against the guards, Tali's omni-tool glowing as she incinerated a guard while Ashley covered her.

Rolling to the side to avoid a barrage I slid behind a crate, immediately cloaking and ducking out again to where I saw the last group of Cerberus troops grouped up. Taking off in a sprint I charged towards the group of nine. Before I even got halfway, three of them had been killed by Shepard and Ashley, another two were engulfed a moment later in a ball of flames. It was then that I uncloaked causing the remaining four goons to stumble back in shock as another two were picked off. By then I had reached the two and as I ran past the first one I smashed my fist into his skull, shattering it. Sliding to a stop I reached out and grabbed the last trooper by the neck, lifting him up with my considerable strength. With a contemptuous sneer I crushed his neck before tossing him to the side.

"Looks like that's it." I said turning to Shepard ignoring the carnage in the room.

Shepard nodded slowly. "Looks like it." She hesitated. "Was it really necessary to kill him like that?" She asked nodding towards the Cerberus guard, whose neck I crushed.

I shrugged. "Probably not. It felt good though."

Shepard didn't seem to like that answer as she narrowed her eyes at me. "Right... And you didn't think that it might be useful to interrogate him?"

I shrugged unconcerned. "It wasn't worth it. We'll find more information in their databanks than what he could have told us."

"I see." She said slowly "Well then, I suggest you get to work."

_**A/N: Alright. So we've learned about all the Symbiosis problems that come with the Nanosuit and Wraith and Tali had an argument about synthetics. **_

_**Now, for the important part. I hate to do this but I'm putting NE on hold for a bit. I have a few reasons for this. Firstly I'd gotten a huge case of writers block the past few weeks and haven't written anything for it. I've only recently gotten my motivation back and have started writing Chap 13. However I prefer to keep a buffer up incase something like this happens again so that I have a chance to start writing again before I have to put it on hold. I can tell you guys that that buffer has allowed me to upload chapters even when I've had a hard time writing. **_

_**The second reason ties in with the first because not only have I had writers block but I lost quite a bit of motivation for NE. During this time I started planning out and writing two new fics with one more background fic for one of them. I do plan on writing those but NE will take priority so you guys don't have to worry about those that much. If you're interested the fics are a Starcraft fic that will eventually crossover into the ME universe. The other's are Star Wars fics, specifically a SWTOR/Star Wars Movies crossover and the SWTOR backstory for that fic. **_

_**The third reason is that I have some extremely important exams coming up in a couple of weeks that I have to study for so I won't be able to write fast enough to get new chapters up soon. I'm really sorry about this but sometimes real life actually has to come first. Horrible I know. Real life sucks compared to some of the other stuff. **_

_**Again, I apologize that it came to this and I hope you understand. Hopefully this break won't take too long, I definitely won't be updating in two weeks, but I might release the next chapter in a month. Who knows, maybe I'll update in time for my birthday... **_

_**Anyway thanks for your support and I'll be seeing you next time.**_

**_For updates on my fics I'd suggest following me on twitter LEGION001 I try to update every now and then with info._**

_**If you have questions about NE or want to know more about my new fics don't hesitate to ask. **_

_**~LEGION**_


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